Survival
by Lune the dragon
Summary: Nule is kidnapped by the military, but when he discovers that he is holding the key to the survival of the human race, he is suddenly forced into a new and different world filled with dragons, and talking cheetahs that walk on two legs. In the years that follow this transition, war threatens the peace and Nule along with two others are the only ones who can replace the peace.
1. Selection

Okay is if your reading this, I am fixing up the grammar errors in this chapter so enjoy

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Selection

Deep underground in a top secret base known as the Pentagon. Men and women were hard at work keeping track of a country called America, these men and women were hard at work directing the countries freedom fighters, the best that America had to offer its citizens. At the front of the room, was a large screen, showing an area of desert terrain

The men and women who were all stationed at their own private terminal each separated into columns and rows. The small terminals held nothing more than a small laptop, and spread sheets of a plan which was posted up on the large screen. Some of these workers were talking into their headsets giving orders to the troops out on the field, While others were looking at satellite imaging on their computers of the various battle grounds of the world.

"Samson!" yelled a deep voiced man. Almost every head had turned to look at a man making his up the aisles. The man who had shouted was wearing a deep green uniform with various pins and medals on it, while in his hands he held a hefty stack of papers in his hand.

A skinny man wearing a white dress shirt and a tie suddenly stood up. It was clear that he was scared of the man who had bellowed his name.

The highly decorated man pushed his face, in Samson's face. The man was purple in the face, as his anger showed through.

"W…what c…can I…I do for you G…General Hooker?" stuttered Samson

"Would you care…" started General Hooker, before looking up and seeing that several people had looked up from their computer screens and were now watching the General and Samson. The only people who were not looking at the sudden commotion were the people who were relaying news to the troops out in the battle field. "Would you mind telling me why your computer screwed up with the random search," said General Hooker, lowering his voice and thrusting the stack of paper in Samson's face.

Samson took the papers and began to look through the papers. "But I don't see anything wrong with this," Started Samson, before he was cut off by General Hooker.

"Page thirty-five, second row, Leo Codak," Instantly Samson turned to the page mentioned. The pages were full of names divided up into five rows. The names and info for each of the men listed on the page written in bold letters. Scanning down the second row, he began to look for Leo Codak. Finding the name near the middle, Samson began to look over the info. He saw his name and saw that under statue it read Dead.

Samson looked up at the General who had a look of triumph on his face. Samson instantly sat at his computer and began to run a system check on his equipment, but was distraught moments later when his screen read "Systems clean,"

"I am at a loss for words General. My computers fine I don't understand what could have gone wrong," Said Samson looking up from his compute. a small bead of sweat making its way down his face. "I could search again and use those results," Samson said nervously.

"We can't, this list has already been sent to the higher ups. Once they see this mistake were both dead," Replied General Hooker trying and failing to keep his voice calm.

"All I can do for you General is search this Leo Codak, and see what it says,"

The General was silent for a moment before nodding. "I want everything on him," replied the General his voice becoming softer as his anger ebbed away.

Samson went back to his computer and began to type on his keyboard. In a few short moments he had pulled up a file, to which he quickly began to check its contents. Mid way into the file he suddenly looked up at the General.

"Sir you should hear this," said Samson in a low voice.

"What have you pulled up?" asked The General losing his angry tone.

"Well sir it is a psychological report on Leo Codak," replied Samson. "It is my belief that Lieutenant Leo Codak is suffering from post traumatic stress syndrome," read Samson. "A simple training exercise was too much for Mr. Codak to finish, as he hesitated in the middle of the exercise floor and hesitated when it came to shooting at a target with the face of a small child holding a gun, When he was questioned by his captain, Leo Codak said he saw his son, Leo Codak Jr.

"What else do you have on him?" asked the General.

Again Samson searched the files on his computer for a moment or two before he found was he was looking for. "It says here that he returned home, but a year later he was killed at a convenient mart when he tried to purchase a pack of cigarettes," Answered Samson.

"And what about the boy?" the general asked Samson.

"His mother Lilly Codak took him to one of our bases where she was helping with an experiment. The only Problem is I can't find any record of her in the military database,"

"She wouldn't be in the data base. Lilly Codak was a scientist working on a top secret project. It was suppose to be a means to save the people of the United States if the Russians tried to nuke us. the only problem is two years after she started working there the place was overrun with god freaks that claimed our research was against god's will, they destroyed all the research," said the General in a sour tone.

There was a slight moment of silence between the two, as neither knew what to say, when suddenly an idea came to him.

"What have we got on the boy, Leo Codak Jr?" asked the General.

A few more seconds on the computer and Samson brought up a file marked with the name Leo Codak. A close look inside of the file showed that it was not a written file but contained various videos. Samson clicked on of the videos. The black screen began to move and showed a large amount of men and women standing outside. In the background it showed thick foliage of trees, while in the center of the screen it showed a group of men wearing camo uniforms. They seemed to be surrounding a boy who wore a black t-shirt and a pair of blue skinny jeans.

One of the men stepped forward and pointed at the boy. The group around the boy began to shake and it was clear to the General that they were laughing. The man who had caused the laughing turned his head to look at his fellow soldiers', his finger still pointed at the boy. Suddenly the boy grabbed the soldiers arm and turned so that his back was against the soldier's stomach. With a quick jerk the soldier flipped in the air and landed on his back on the ground, but the boy was not done. With a quick and sudden jerk, the soldiers arm stood at an odd angle, and the man on the ground had a look of pain on his face.

Suddenly two of the soldiers in the group rushed forward and grabbed the boy by his arms and dragged him away, while the other soldiers grabbed their fallen comrade. The general looked at Samson at a complete loss for words. Looking back at the screen Samson saw a scroll bar on the side. Quickly scrolling down he saw that there was a report. Samson began to read out loud for the benefit of the General.

"The soldier whose arm was dislocated was Officer Samuel. When questioned he claimed that this attack was unprovoked. Officer Samuel is a respected member of the scientific squad, but none the less we spoke to the boy, - a Leo Codak- who injured the Officer. When asked why he had attacked Samuel he stated that "He was being rude and was making vulgar comments about my mother." When asked what the comment was he would not say. We asked many of the people who had witnessed the attack, and all claimed that Mr. Codak was at fault, but Leo's mother –Lily. Codak- also a respective member of the scientific squad, claimed that Officer Samuel would make sexual comments to her in the work place, and when she denied his advance he began to take his anger out on her son. While I am unsure which parts are true and which are not, I can honestly say from reviewing the surveillance that officer Samuel is at fault. He has been ordered to step down from his position. You will notice that in the video the boy preformed a perfect judo move, and dislocated Officer Samuels arm successfully, with barely any problems. I have looked into the boy's record and have discovered that his father- lieutenant Leo Codak- was a Marine, and was discharged some time ago, the only reason the boy is here at the base is because his father was killed. His mother is all that he has left. It is my belief that his father taught him what he himself learned from the marines," finished Samson interest evident in his voice.

"Right I want someone at that boy's house I want to know if he is a capable person. We might be able to recruit him," said the General.

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Thirteen days later

In a regular suburban town the sun had not yet risen, as the sky was an inky black mass, not even the moon's dim light could penetrate the clouds that helped block out the light. Suddenly a loud buzzing noise broke the silence. The source of this buzzing came from a two story house. If one were to be standing on the second landing one could clearly see in a deep green glow 3:15 A.M. in the window on the left.

Suddenly a hand reached out of the darkness and pressed a button on the clock causing the buzzing to stop. Unlike most the person hiding under the covers did not stay there, with a toss of his covers a young man got out of bed, he wore nothing but boxers and a small necklace in the shape of a dragon. In the moon light it showed his raven black hair, walking to the window he looked outside only to have the light of the moon dull the color of his green eyes.

He quickly dressed himself in what looked like a sleeveless shirt and a pair of jogging pants. Walking to his dresser he picked up his I-pod and placed the ear buds into each ear and departed from the room. Heading downstairs, he jumped past the fifth stair from the bottom as it squeaked when stepped on. Heading for the front door, he placed his hand on the door knob when suddenly the distinct sound of the fifth stair squeaked.

Sighing the young man turned around and found himself face to face with a fully grown man, wearing a white shirt with bold black letters saying "Worlds best agent" followed with a pair of black sunglasses below it. Apart from his shirt he wore a pair of blue jeans. Not a lot could be seen in the dark but the young man had known instantly who it was. Hidden behind the shadows of night was the blond crew cut man with crystal blue eyes and the same unmistakable smirk which he always wore when catching something that shouldn't be happening.

There was a moment in which both men stared at each other as if waiting for something to happen, when suddenly the man reached for his side, instantly the young man ducked behind a cabinet, reaching down to his left leg, pulling up his pant leg he grabbed a small black pistol strapped to his leg. Quickly the young man peered over the side of the cabinet only to hear the distinct sound of shattering glass, yet there was an absence of gunfire. Quickly ducking back into safety the young man looked around and saw a mirror in a nearby closet whose door was ajar just slightly. The mirror was just positioned at the right angle to see the agent walking forward with both hands held on his gun, pointing it in his direction.

Taking a deep breath the young man rolled out from his cover and took aim with his gun. Yet again there was an absence of the sound of gun fire as the young man emptied his clip into the agent's chest. Looking up at the agent the young man saw him standing his gun still raised, while on the ground were a handful of pellets. Suddenly the man fell into a fit of laughter. The young man gritted his teeth as he hated the sound of that laugh.

"You're getting better I never would have thought you would fire so quickly after aiming," said the man laughter in his voice.

"Just because I prefer something sharp doesn't mean I can't use a gun, anyway can I get to my run now Chad?" asked the boy with boredom in his voice.

"You know I don't like you going out so early Leo," Chad replied in a soft, yet stern voice.

"Just one more year and I won't have to put up with your rules, besides I can handle myself if anything goes wrong," Replied Leo quickly taking out a combat knife strapped to his left leg. "And I told you to call me Nule, not Leo."

"Ok _Nule_." Chad said emphasizing his name. "Whatever you want, Just be back in an hour or two."

"Get off my back," replied Nule as he walked out of the door.

Once outside Nule grabbed his I-pod and turned up the volume. From the ear buds played a loud and angry sounding music. With his tunes Nule took off down the street at a jog. Taking his usual route down Lee St. Nule saw something very odd. outside of Mr. and Mrs. Marshals house was a large white van.

The Marshals did not own a white van, in fact there 2012 Dodge Corolla, was parked in their driveway. Nule stopped and began to take a closer look at the van when suddenly the engine started up and the van quickly pulled away from the curb.

Nule was intrigued, as the van had pulled away quickly. suddenly a thought came to him, What if the Marshals were just robbed. A sense of duty crept into him and he was ready to wake them up, when he remembered the Marshals had an alarm system. Nules concern was fading as he realized that everyone on this block had an alarm system.

Returning to his jog, Nule continued on his path. Quickly taking a right at Johnson St. Nule ran into the nearby park, while the song changed; now instead of loud angry music the ear buds were releasing a soft up beat song. Up ahead Nule saw the park up ahead, as usual Nule took to the park at a leisurely jog The large park had paths made just for joggers. Following His normal Route as he always did, Nule began to jog through a trail full of trees and flowers, as he enjoyed the sight before him, while It was dark and things were hard to see Nule enjoyed his limited view, the smells of the fresh flowers was enough to make this day go from crappy to ok within a few seconds.

As Nule reached the end of the trail, he turned around and began to jog back home, until he reached the streets. Going right on Lee St, he headed back up towards the Marshals house. Slowing his jog to a steady walk Nule walked to his front door, while taking out his ear buds. As Nule pushed the door open, he reached for his left leg and pulled out his combat knife, Chad was sure to jump him again, and when he did Nule would be ready. True he didn't like Chad, Nule had never really wanted to hurt him Just scare him.

Nule held the blade against his wrist as he hid it from view and walked further into his house, his eyes, and ears alert for any sound or movement.

Strangely no one jumped out at him. Not put off by this Nule moved to the living room where he was sure to be attacked, only to find a Chad Tied and gagged to the recliner. Looking over his face Nule saw his eyes on him, before quickly darting to look over his shoulder. Without hesitation Nule let the knife drop, and closed his fingers around the handle, quickly turning around, he faced a large man with his arms reached out as if to grab him.

Ducking under the man's arms Nule moved behind him and turned around as he, quickly raised the blade of the knife to strike the man in his side, when suddenly something hard gripped his wrist, Looking up he saw that another man was standing behind him, his hand firmly secured around Nule's wrist. Nule jerked his hand trying to free himself, but it was no use. Nule tried to attack with his second hand, but the man had caught it and quickly pushed it and his other hand behind his back.

The man pushed up hard on his hand with the knife causing Nule to grunt with pain and drop the knife. The first man who was wearing a black ski-mask grabbed his legs and forced them together, and quickly tied them with a thick rope, while the second man did the same with his hands.

Once finished the second man, pushed Nule into a nearby chair while stuffing his mouth with a sock.

"I told you the boy was going to be a problem sir," said the first man in a cold voice, as he removed his ski-mask. The man had a shaved head and piercing grey eyes

"Yea, but he's not so tough. I think his dad skipped a few lessons," said the second man in an amused voice as he stepped out of the shadows to reveal short black hair and a five o-clock shadow, while his eyes were a softer blue color. "Ok listen kid because I'm only sayin this once. You've been drafted by General Hooker, and you're going to help him with the current crises on our hands at the moment," said the first man.

Once the words had sunk in Nule took a closer look at the two men, and cursed into the sock currently jammed in between his teeth. They were the men his father had always talked about. The second man was Captain John Hammocks, and the first one was Corey Newloc. Both of these men had been in his father's picture upstairs. Nule clearly remembered his father telling him that he had once been saved by Corey Newloc, and about how he had helped John Hammocks blow up a Russian tank that had been pelting them with missiles. Instantly questions flared up inside of Nule's head Why was this general Hooker Looking for him, and why where two of his dads old war buddies here tying him and his handler up?

Nule shook his head as he grunted his anger into the sock jammed between his teeth. Nule wanted no part in anything the government had planned. The army had driven his father paranoid and his mother had died after working on a project for the military, No whatever the military had planed Nule would not take part in it.

"See sir, he doesn't want to help we should just leave right now," said Corey Newloc in frustration.

"No!" replied John hammocks. 'We didn't quite when stuck in that Russian prison. This is much easier and I'll be damned if we quite after only one try, no were going to take him with us and help him see reason," Finished John Hammocks

"Fine, but what about him?" Asked Corey as he pointed at Chad.

"Knock him out and untie him, we don't need him," replied John in a bored fashion.

Corey nodded and walked towards Chad, with a quick punch to the face Chad was out cold. Corey Untied Chad and let him fall to the ground in a heap, while John punched Nule in face. Stars lit up behind Nule's eyes, but he remained awake. A second later he was punched again. With his recent run and struggle with the two men Nule was tired and reluctantly gave in into his violent sleep.

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There you go, I have, to the best of my knowledge fixed this chapter of its grammar errors, if anyone finds anymore tell me and I will fix them immediately, also I shifted some words around and better expressed some of my more jumbled scenes.


	2. Used

Used

The first thing Nule noted was the pain in his face, and then he remembered what had happened. The image of Chad slumped on the ground, made his chest heave. Nule had not much cared for Chad, but he was none the less, a good person. Nule had never much liked authority, -and Chad was just another form of it, but Chad was kind, always asking how his day was, and making dinner, and not just macaroni and cheese, Chad made some of the best steak Nule had ever tasted.

The second thing Nule noticed was that he was lying on his side, with his hands behind his back. Giving a experimental tug, he found that his hands were bound together by thick rope. Questions flew in and out of Nules head, like "Where am I?" and "What does the military want with me?" Nule tired to sit up and soon regretted it as pain shot up his spine, fighting the urge to lie back down, as more pain racked his body.

After a few minutes of struggling, Nule managed to sit upright. Taking a moment to rest Nule opened his eyes to find that he was in a dull grey room. It looked like a jail holding cell. The walls were faded, there were no windows and there was a small bare bed in the left back corner- it probably had no sheets so they could not be used to strangle the guards, and a personal facility on the right back corner. The room itself was alight with a dim yellow glow, which originated from a single light bulb.

Suddenly a chill ran up the back on Nule's spin. He had gotten this feeling before, usually when; Chad was trying to sneak up on him, and attack. Nule quickly looked around in the corners of the roof, looking for any sign of a camera, but all the corners were empty.

Taking another look at the corners, just to be sure, Nule raised his arms as far as he could. Lucky for him they had tied his hands so one hand rested against his other arm. Nule raised his hand as far as he could, then he moved them over his head. His muscles strained and pulled as they stretched, yet Nule continued ignoring the pain as it was little and insignificant. Within a matter of moments Nule had managed to get his hands in front of him.

Nule silently laughed to himself, but it was soon squelched in his throat, as it dawned on him, "I'm still tied up."

Nule made his way over to the bed in the corner and fell onto the end of it, only to jump up again as a sharp pain shot up the back of his thigh. Nule dropped to his knees and looked in the spot that his legs had been. It was hard to see in the dim light, but Nule could see, a piece of metal. It looked as if someone had torn it away from the leg of the bed. The edge, which had a small drop of blood on it, looked sharp.

Nule took a quick look back at the door, before rubbing the rope up and down the sharp piece of metal. He did this for several minutes, while checking the door regularly; he pulled his wrists back to look at his work, but the door suddenly opened and John, walked into the room, while leaving the door wide open.

John did not appear to be surprised by Nule's attempt to break his bonds; In fact a smile played on his lips, and danced on his face. Nule remembered him using the same smile, when he was captured. That smile was forged from amusement and mockery. It was a smile that was not friendly, it was a smile that said, "I expected better."

"That was a very good try Leo, but your attempt was pathetic," laughed John. Nule grimaced at his laughter as his assumption was correct, that was a smile that pitied you, and looked down at you. Nule hated that stupid smile, and began to hate John's voice, even more than he hated the man himself.

Nule stayed on the ground watching John as he laughed at him. Suddenly an idea came to Nule, quickly looking down at Johns, feet he saw that they were unevenly spaced, and not firmly rooted to the ground. Nule moved into a more comfortable position, while he looked up at john.

"Oh I see, you're not talking to me, you think I'm the bad guy in all this, am I right?" asked John, Nule remained silent. He would not ruin his concentration. "Fine, but the sooner you cooperate the sooner, you can get out of this cell,"

John turned around, and started to walk towards the door, when Nule suddenly twisted his body while on the ground, and swept, john's feet out from under him. John fell to the ground with a loud thud. It appeared that he was dazed and confused for a moment, but that was all Nule needed. Nule quickly grabbed John's knife from its holder, and rushed out of the room while closing the door, But an odd feeling came over Nule. If this General Hooker, wanted him so bad, why were there no guards positioned at his door, could he believe Nule could not escape, but even so, this was the military, they had rules and regulations, that they always followed, and what about John leaving the door wide open. That just went against everything the military stood for. "Never give your enemy a sense of hope, or an exit." And besides, John had gone down to easy, he was a trained man, made to withstand torture, surly a small fall could not daze him, no something was severely wrong here. Not being able to figure this small problem out Nule quickly cut his bonds with Johns knife

Nule found himself in a small hallway, just large enough to allow two grown men to walk down the hall side by side. The left side of the hall or rather, the side of the hall with the door he had just exited from, contained doors much similar to the one behind him. Nule turned to look to the right, and saw that there was no hallway, just a wall. It looked as if he was placed in the very last room.

Nule sighed as he was forced to move in a per-selected route. Nule kept close to the wall, as he ran down the hall at a crouch, as he tried to attract as little attention as possible. Up ahead was an connecting hallway, Nule was about to increase his speed, when an alarming thought occurred to him. "_Cameras!" _Thought Nule. Nule mentally kicked himself as he forgot to check for cameras.

Slowly looking behind him, as if fearing to find the lens of a camera focus on him, Nule saw that the hallway he was in was empty of cameras. Sighing with relief Nule continued down the hall more slowly. Reaching the hall a few seconds later Nule crouched onto the ground. With the knife still in his hand, Nule slid the knife around the corner. In the reflection of the blade, Nule saw an empty hallway, with the walls lined with more doors, but there were no cameras hanging from the roof.

Questions rose in him again. Where were the guards, and the cameras, why had no one tried to stop him, surly they knew he had escaped? John had to have called for backup by now, but here he was kneeling against a wall, holding a knife, in the middle of some complex controlled by the military, and there security was lacking, surly this could not be Nule's lucky day.

Nule stood up, as his suspicions grew about his current situation. "Something's defiantly not right," Nule commented out loud.

As if his voice had broken some sort of spell, an alarm sounded over head. Suddenly there was a shout from behind him. Nule looked down the way he had just come to see a guard running at him. Nule cursed to himself, and ran at the guard. Both meet about half way. Nule raised the blade in his hand and went to strike, but the guard had grabbed his wrist and forced the knife out of his hands. The blade skidded across the floor, and hit the wall with a metallic click.

Nule punched the guard in the gut with his other arm, causing the guard to double over in pain. His grasp on Nule's hand lessened and Nule pulled it free, bringing both hands together as if to pray, Nule brought his elbows down on the guards back, causing him to fall to the ground. Nule searched the guard, and found on him an M9 pistol, and several clips of ammunition. Continuing his search Nule found a key card, a pack of cigarettes and a lighter. Nule clicked the lighter and a small flame burned to life. Nule smiled as he extinguished the flame and went to grab the knife, when he heard more shouting coming from a side hallway. Forgetting about the knife, Nule moved on. Nule ran down the hall, the gun in his hand held ready to fire.

"There he is!" shouted a voice from behind Nule. Without hesitation, Nule turned and crouched on his left knee. Bullets whizzed past his head, and hit the concrete wall, causing the concrete wall to shower pieces of rock onto his head. There were six guards standing twenty feet away each re aiming their guns so as to kill Nule. Without thinking, Nule aimed the gun and fired. Each time he fired he retrained the sight of the gun and fired again before moving onto his next target. Red splashed the green camouflage uniforms. In a matter of moments the six guards fell onto the ground.

Nule stood up and turned around, taking off down the hall, as he discharged the clip in his gun, and loading a new on into the chamber. Nule took a right turn at an intersecting hallway, and saw two hundred feet ahead what appeared to be an elevator door. Doubling his speed, Nule made it to the elevator in a matter of thirty seconds. The Side panel had no buttons, but it had a little card slider, reaching into his pockets, Nule pulled out the guard's key card and slide it through the slot.

Immediately the elevator kicked into life and began to move down. Nule waited for a few seconds, but when the elevator had not reached his level Nule began to get a little worried. Someone could catch him at any minute. Nule took a quick look around and found that there was nothing to hide him from praying eyes. Nule turned his back to the elevator door and pointed the gun down the hallway, if anyone came around a corner or opened a door, Nule could easily take them out. Right now his mind was not set on morals, he did not care that he had to kill to escape. He was not going to sit and let them keep him against his will.

A minute or so passed when finally Nule heard the ding of the elevator, turning around as he lowered his gun only to see that the elevator had finished opening, while inside stood a guard, Nule went to raise the gun with his right hand when suddenly the guards hand shot out and grabbed Nules wrist. The guard himself went to raise his own gun, but Nule copied him and grabbed the guards own wrist. Both struggled to gain control of the situation, but the guard was slowly overpowering Nule, in a desperate attempt to win, Nule lifted his right leg and kicked the guard in the gut,

The guard doubled over and released Nules hand along with his gun, without hesitation Nule forced the guard against the back wall of the elevator, and pointed the gun at his heart and fired. The guard blood gushed from the his chest and covered Nule's hands, forcing the dead guard out of the elevator, Nule picked up the guards fallen gun and checked it. It was still full.

As the elevator doors closed Nule mentally kicked himself, he was getting sloppy, he was making minor mistakes that could have easily cost him his life. His father would have kicked his ass for making what he would call "a civilians mistake." Nule sighed, He wasn't being rational, and he was letting his fear get in the way of his training. His mind was racing; there was no way he would let himself make any more mistakes. After a few moments of pondering over his thoughts, he looked above the door. There was a little black screen which flashed red with numbers. The number three currently flashed on the screen. Nule sighed, and pointed the guns at the doors waiting for them to open.

The number changed to Two, causing Nule to close his eyes and take a deep breath, this was the moment, whatever lay behind those doors, would surly mean his freedom, or his death. The Number changed to one. There was a small ding, and the doors opened, just as Nule opened his eyes.

Nule was shocked; he had not been expecting this, beyond those doors where lush green trees, and grass. It was light, and it looked as if it was mid day. Carefully with the guns still pointed in front of him, Nule stepped out from the elevator. Nule looked up and saw that there was no blue sky to hold the yellow sun, instead there was what appeared to be a rocky roof filled with florescent light bulbs.

The air tasted fresh and smelled clean, while a soft warm breeze ran through the air and empty spaces around Nule. Not put off at the beauty of the place, Nule continued to walk. The trees were clumped together, and it was hard to walk through it, and still keep the guns pointed, but Nule somehow managed it. Several times Nule found himself staring at the trees, and looking at nearby plant life, he was quickly becoming distracted. When he noticed his eyes wondering he quickly corrected it and kept his eyes forward.

Up ahead Nule say a breakage in the trees, where more light shone through, Nule found that the closer he walked to the tree line, the more spread out the trees seemed, slightly grateful for the change, but he none the less kept his guard up. As Nule reached the tree line he could see, a clear field, the only thing in the field seemed to be the grass, which looked as if it had been cut recently.

Slowly Nule walked out into the open field. He had taken, only a few steps when suddenly the open Field transformed into what appeared to be a training ground. All throughout the field there were training obstacles; there was gun safety, bomb safety, a tall wall, with a three equally long ropes, along with what appeared to be a basketball court, and much more that Nule could not describe, as well as grown men and women wearing uniforms. None had stopped to look at the boy that had suddenly walked into their world. Cursing Nule turned around to try and walk back, but when he did he saw that there was a large fence with barb wire at the top.

Not caring if he got a little scratched, Nule went to climb the fence when a voice sounded behind him. "That fence is electrified, you know," Quickly raising the guns, Nule turned around to find himself faced to face with John. Without hesitation Nule pulled the trigger on both guns. Several loud bangs ripped the semi silence apart. As the bangs faded so did the noise of training, People had turned from what they were doing to look at him with a disapproving glance.

Nule was trapped; he was stuck between an electrical fence, and a group of military men, both of which would kill him. Nule thought quickly, he didn't have enough bullets to take out all of these men and women, but he sure as hell was going to take as many to hell with him as possible, Nule raised his guns again about ready to fire, when suddenly there was laughter nearby.

Nule looked around himself to find the laughter, but was only shocked to see, that John stood before him, unscathed by the bullets; in fact, it appeared that there were not any bullet holes at all. Nule was flabbergasted by this, he had clearly shot John multiply times, at point blank range, and yet he stood there perfectly fine.

Nule looked around trying to find an escape, while backing away from John; he noticed that everyone had gone back to their training exercises. Turning back to John, Nule saw that he was slowly approaching him; Nule was truly scared now as he didn't know what he was facing. The first thing that crossed his mind was that he was screwed. In Nule's fright he grew brave, and the same feelings gripped him as when he thought the men and women training were going to attack. Nule in what can only be described as brave stupidity ran at John, before he reached John; he jumped in the air and brought his foot up. A second later, Nule fell to the ground. Confused, Nule looked back to see the back of john shimmering in the air. John turned around and turned solid again.

Suddenly the room around him began to shimmer, before it turned to blackness. It was as if the world's light had been extinguished. Suddenly something was lifted from his eyes, and Nule was able to see again.

Nule was on his back laying on what felt like a slab of metal. Nule slowly sat up and looked around. Standing over him was John looking down at him with a grin on his face. Nule quickly backed away as far until his back hit a solid wall. He looked up at John uncertainty and fear on his face.

"How do you like the virtual simulator?" asked John with his amused smiled. Seconds ticked by, before the words sunk in. "Virtual Simulator?" asked Nule in a small voice. It was clear that Nule was confused, he had never known the military had virtual simulators like this, of course this did not surprise Nule, as he knew there were many things the military kept quiet about. When finally Nule had put together that what he had just seen was not real, he overcame his confusion, which was replaced with anger.

"What the hell is wrong with you? You can't just take someone from their home. Someone will notice I'm gone!" yelled Nule, venting his anger at John. John just smiled as he looked at Nule, causing a fresh wave of anger to wash over Nule. Everything about him, just made Nule angry: his clothes, his face, his smile, and especially his blue eyes, which gave a disapproving glance, Nule grinded his teeth just looking at John.

"First off, no one is going to know you're gone. Your old home has been emptied; your handler willingly gave you to us, after all the CIA works for the government," Replied John amusement in his voice. Nule did not know what he was laughing at, but he hated him, and his laugh. His anger had not subsided, and this fresh lie about Chad pushed him over the edge.

"Willingly!" Screamed Nule, You tied him up and punching him in the face, he no more willingly gave me up than a greedy man would give up a diamond!" Nule continued

John continued to laugh at Nule. His anger was out of control, and in an effort to relive some of his anger, Nule flung himself from the wall and propelled himself at John. Nule screamed as he cocked his fist back and punched John in his face. John immediately stopped laughing as he stumbled back a few steps, but Nule was not done. Rushing at John, Nule raised his foot in front of him and kicked at John, but john quickly recovered from his shock, and grabbed Nules leg. John twisted Nules leg, causing him to turn to avoid the pain, but John had been expecting this, with a quick shove of Nules leg, Nule went tumbling onto the ground. Nule put his hands in front of him to stop his fall, but before he could stand up, John had placed his booted foot onto Nules back, and forced him onto the ground.

"You got fight in you kid, I'll give you that, but your anger will get ya killed," John said in a serious voice. "Now, let me explain a few things to you. The day we picked you up, never happened. The night before, Chad drugged your food, on our orders, when you went to bed; we came and placed you in the virtual simulator, and transported you here. You were willingly given up,"

Nule struggled under Johns boot, as the words sunk in. Chad was just another government official. "I should have known, you government people are all assholes," said Nule his anger subsiding, but still boiling under his skin.

"Look Leo I'm sorry, about this, but it's for the survival of the American people," There was pity in Johns, voice, which caused Nule to stop his struggling. "Get off me…please" Tried Nule.

John hesitated for a moment, before he removed his boot. "Saying please always helps," Said John in a kinder voice. Nule picked himself up off of the ground. John continued to talk. "Now that that is settled, I want you to follow me; we have to get you properly dressed," Said John as he walked out of a door Nule had not noticed.

"Properly dressed for what?" asked Nule fearing the answer. Nule walked behind him.

"I'm your new handler, and you're going to work for General Hooker," replied John. Nule stopped in his tracks.

"No I'm not," Nule said disbelief in his voice.

"Why not?" asked John genuine curiosity in his voice.

"I hate the government; look what happened to my mom because of the government. She worked on some secret project, that got her killed by god freaks who took their religion to serious. Because of the war my dad went through, he had nightmares; he would wake up in the middle of the night, grab the gun under his pillow and fire several rounds into the wall, until he realized where he was. He got so bad, he killed himself in the dead of night," Vented Nule.

"Your dad never killed himself, he was murdered trying to buy a pack of smokes." John said as his anger started show.

"Is that what they put in the report?" asked Nule. "I was there I saw him put his 55 in his mouth and pull the trigger. For his friend you didn't know a whole lot about him!" Nule shouted. It was Johns turn to face the truth, as the word sunk in. As Leo Codaks, commanding officer, he had to write up the report, which ended up sending His friend home. Sorrow welled up in John as he remembered his friends face, the night he went home. He wore a smile that day, but it didn't reach his eyes. Leo's eyes were sunken in, and hollow. The light that had lit up his eyes, had faded, leaving behind nothing but a body with nothing but sorrow.

Nule saw the look of despair on John's face. Nule thought that it would make him smile, but it only made him feel guilty. He had thrown the truth into Johns face with no warning. Nule began to regret what he had said. He didn't really hate John, but there was a certain dislike towards the man. Nule opened his mouth to say sorry, but quickly closed it as he saw John pull himself together, and fixed his gaze on Nule.

"Look Leo, I can understand your distrust towards the military, but this is different, were not going to war," John's voice was soft, but there was strength in it as well, which told Nule that he believed the words that he was saying. "I hated the war as much as your dad did, and I'll admit, I have nightmares sometimes, but this is important. Just trust me please." pleaded John.

Nule sighed, he hated the military, he wanted nothing to do with them, but his curiosity was getting the better of him. The military was meant to fight off attacks from foreign and domestic threats. If this was not a war, then it had to have been something else, but there was not many things that would cause the military to draft an underage teen who never even signed up for the military, had not so much as taken a pamphlet from any branch of the military. There was no way this could be a terrorist case, there was nothing a kid could know about that. The reason he was drafted had to be because of one of his parents, but which one, his dad was a dog of the military and a damn good one at that, while his mother was a top scientist, who helped create some of the best military equipment.

"What kind of threat is America up against?" asked Nule hardness in his voice. John hesitated for a moment, as if deciding whether it was ok to say anything about it. After a few seconds he made up his mind and spoke.

"All I know is that the world is tearing itself apart. All these recent earthquakes, the one in San Francisco, remember that one? Remember how it was felt all the way in Michigan?" asked John worry in his voice. "What about the one that obliterated Japan? There not coincidences. The world is really ending, were just trying to keep everyone alive,"

"How do you know this for a fact?" asked Nule skepticism in his voice.

"Your mom was studying the earthquakes; she saw that there were little tremors running through the earth, to little to be picked up by regular people, but a seismometer, picked up these little shakes, all the time. They were constant. She looked at records, from San Francisco, and saw that seismologists, had recorded, five days of constant Shaking, until the big one hit,"

Nule sighed, it was his moms work that had led to him being drafted, but it didn't add up, something was wrong."That doesn't prove that the earth is tearing itself apart, it just means, we've had some really bad earthquakes," conclude Nule.

"Don't you watch the news? The earth around San Francisco cracked, and swallowed the whole damn city, along with most major cities near California," replied John, getting impatient.

"So do you know what's causing these big earthquakes?"

"No, not even your mom could figure it out, but she had a theory,"

"What was it," asked Nule.

"I can't tell you, it's classified," Sighed John.

"Well what is the military doing to help people?" pried Nule.

"That's also classified, but we think your mom was working on a solution to the problem, that's why you were drafted, we think your mom gave you plans to save us," said John a look of excitement, and fear on his face.

"But she didn't, my mom never told me what she was working on, She didn't even like talking about work," replied Nule also getting impatient. "Besides, how are you supposed to help everyone if you don't even know what my mom was working on?"

"Her computer terminal, we managed to salvage some of the information on her computer, but its incomplete, the world's top scientists have been working for years, trying to replace the information."

"I still don't see why I should help the military, they've been nothing but, trouble for me," said Nule spit in his voice.

"If you help us, we can make you a very rich person, you'll never have to work, never have to strive to make a living," came Johns reply.

"Not interested, but I'll tell you what, I will help the military on two conditions,"

"Ok so long as they are reasonable,"

"First I want you, and everyone else to stop calling me Leo, instead I want to be called Nule," said Nule force in his voice.

"Ok I will tell General Hooker, what else," asked John.

"I want the military to leave me alone after this,"

"We'll see," came Johns reply. With that John Led Nule down a hallway.

00000

John had led Nule into what looked like a large laundry mat. The room walls were covered with washing machines and dryers. There was even a counter to have cloths steam pressed, so as to get rid of any unwanted crease. In one corner there was a mat covered in boots, neatly lined together with little tags hanging from the laces, each had a different name. The wall they sat against had a sign that said " Boot shining" In big black letters.

Nule was impressed, he knew the military was organized and neat, but this was a whole new level of organized. They preferred everyone to be clean and in shape. John handed him an empty green duffle bag. He then handed him folded military clothes, and a pair of black combat boots, and a survival knife with a serrated edge, and a straight edge.

"You will wake up every morning at five; you will be given two minutes to make your bed, after which you will leave for daily training. You will do basic training four hours each day, then go to breakfast at nine; Breakfast will last five minutes, at which point you will walk to your assigned classes, until noon. You will go to lunch, which will also last for five minutes. After lunch you will go to basic surviving classes until five. You will have three hours of free time; you may use this time to do whatever you wish. There are no computers, but there is a television. You will share a room with nineteen others. Bedtime is eight, and you are not allowed to leave your dorm room after hours, do you understand me?" John asked, his tone implying he had rehearsed this many times

John had gone back to an asshole when they had reached a hallway filled with soldiers. "Yea," replied Nule in a bored fashion. He knew John was only acting tough to make an impression on the other soldiers.

"You will answer me and any other high ranking officer, Yes sir, or no sir! Answers such as: yea, yup, cool, ok, or whatever, will not be tolerated! Do you understand me?" Said John raising his voice, causing the other soldiers in the room to look in their direction.

"Yes sir," said Nule looking John in the eyes, as he silently cursed John.

"Good now take all personal possessions and place them in this bag," replied John as he handed Nule a large yellow envelope, used to transport important files.

Nule reached in his pockets and pulled out several things. In his left pocket he pulled out: a pen knife, a photo, and a piece of folded paper, while in his left pocket he pulled out: a empty gun wrapper and his I-pod. Nule placed the contents of his pockets into the envelope.

"The necklace to," said John as he eyed the Dragon pendent around his neck. Nule touched the pendant with his hand and tucked it into his shirt hiding it from view.

"Not going to happen," replied Nule. Anger washed over John's face at Nule disobeying a direct order. John reached for Nules neck and grabbed for the necklace, Nule had expected this and jerked away, but not fast enough. John had caught the tail of the dragon pendent, and was holding onto it.

"Let go damn it!" Nule cursed, in a desperate attempt to break John's hold Nule twisted. Suddenly Nule fell but caught himself just before, he hit the ground.

Nule looked down at his neck to see the head of the dragon pendant hanging from the chain. Anger boiled inside of Nule, and he quickly picked himself up off of the ground. Nule turned and saw John, Holding the body of the dragon pendant, a look of shock on his face. Nule was about to attack John when, he took another look at the pendant hoping his eyes were playing a trick on him. Nule stopped dead as he saw sticking out from where the dragon's head used to be was a little connecter to what looked like a flash drive.

Nule himself was shocked. As if to reassure himself that what he was seeing was real, Nule looked at the part of the dragon head that had come apart, and saw a hole there just big enough to hold the connecter.

"What's on this flash drive?" asked John confused.

"I…I don't know," said Nule. "I took it from my mom's dead body, to have something to remember her by," explained Nule.

Johns face lit up as he looked down at the hidden flash drive. "Private Damian, Take the new recruit to his dorm," Said John looking at a large black male.

The man named Damian grabbed Nule off of the floor and zipped up his duffle bag, and led him out of the laundry room.


	3. The trip

The Trip

John watched as the soldier escorted Nule out of the laundry room, before he turned his attention to the flash drive in his hand. Could this be the solution to their problem? Could Lily could have hidden it in so clear a place, and if so, what really was on it? All these thoughts flashed through John's head, and dazed him.

The sudden feeling of eyes on him caused John, to look up, only to find the eyes of every soldier on him, and the locket. Suspicion flashed in his mind. Immediately John stood straight and looked at the men with a stern and serious look on his face.

"This incident does not leave this room. No one is to mention this to anybody else. Is that clear?" asked John raising his voice so as to make his point clear.

"Yes sir!" replied every soldier as they recognized a direct order from a superior officer.

John stayed where he was, as he closely inspected the faces, of every man in the room. John mentally smiled, as he saw every man with a look of absolute obedience, none of these men would want to risk their only chance of a new life. In fact some of these men were in it for their families, others were completely selfish, and was only in it for the money, but John could also see more often than he would care to mention, men who were only in for the killing.

Once John was sure none of them would repeat anything, he spoke again. "Then return to your cloths," said John in a stern voice. On his word every man turned from John and returned to cleaning their uniforms.

John turned around and walked out the room, and turned right as headed down the hallway, his mind not even thinking of his destination. His feet simply carried him in the direction he wanted to go. Without knowing, John would walk with a skip in his step, or speed up while walking, it took a few seconds for John to realize what he was doing, but once he did he quickly corrected his behavior, after checking to make sure that no one had seen him.

John was able to contain his actions only with his uttermost concentration, but little questions would pop in his head every now and then, questions like "_what does this mean?" or "could this be real?" _John stopped at a slab of metal. On the left side of the metal was a little slot.

John took from around his neck a little card, and placed it in the slot. Immediately the slab slid open to reveal a lit hallway. Without hesitation, John walked through. The door quickly closed and John proceeded to walk down the hallway. John walked through a door at the end of the hallway and entered into a large spacious room.

The room was filled with scientists. Some were at worktables that held several computers, while others were working on what looked like a large archway, with large power cables attached to the sides, and large rods, on the inside of the arch. John ignored the scientist and they ignored him. Above the main floor to the far side of the room, there was a double sided window that looked out onto the room below.

John headed in the direction of the far wall, as he gently pushed his was past the scientists who went about their business. John made it to the wall, and opened a door, that led to a flight of stairs. John proceeded to walk up the stairs, as he tried to keep his emotions under check.

The room at the top of the stairs was dark, and was only lit by a small cigarette that was slowly fading, and the light from the room below that shown in through the window. The light from the window showed the outline of a desk to Johns left while the window stood at his right. Standing in front of the window overlooking the scientists was General Hooker.

"What have you gotten for me today John?" asked the general in a dull tone.

"Sir it's about Nule, he had something that might interest you," replied John unable to keep his feelings in check any longer.

"Who the hell is Nule?" asked the general; he had a dislike for games.

"Oh…that's what Leo Codak wants to be called from now on," replied John his excitement fading as the general went off topic.

"Leo Codak doesn't get to pick his name!" yelled the outraged general.

"Sir that's not what I came here for, Nule, I mean Leo had something on his person that might be beneficial to our…project," said John choosing his words carefully.

"I highly doubt it." came the generals replied, with a mocking laugh. John's excitement was coming back to him, but this time it wasn't about the flash drive, it was the chance to prove a superior officer wrong, this was the chance every soldier wanted, to prove he was somewhat more knowledgeable then their superiors.

"Leo took this from his mothers, body as a way to remember her after her death." said John as he held up the flash drive. General Hooker was unable to see what John held, due to the darkness around him. The general snatched the flash drive away from john. It took only a second for him to realize what was in his hands and a second longer to let John's words sink in.

Greed welled up inside of the general, as the possibility of what this could hold came to pass in his mind. With quick steps, General Hooker walked towards the desk in the back of the room, and sat in his chair. The general pressed a little button on the desk, and spoke clearly.

"I want Jenny in my office now, and bring your computer." John looked out the window and saw that every scientist had their eyes either on the window or an a skinny women who was rushing towards the window.

"If this proves to be something useful, you might get a promotion." said the general.

The door to the room suddenly opened, as Jenny walked in with her computer under her arm.

"You wanted to see me General Hooker?" asked Jenny, a little too loudly. It was clear to her, as well as to the other scientists, that General Hooker never called a Scientist to his office, especially one who was fluent in most types of Science.

"I think we may have stumbled apoun something, that has to do with project arch." Jenny's face lit up as her hopes had been confirmed. The General had something useful that would get the project up and running again.

Jenny found that no words would come to her, and so she simply nodded her head as a sign that she understood. General Hooker held out the oddly shaped flash drive, and she immediately opened her computer and placed the connecter into the USB port. Immediately a window popped up, showing multiple files each with a scientific equation that neither the general nor John could understand, Jenny however gave a slight gasp, as she clicked on the first file.

Another window opened and showed instructions and more equations that baffled both men, but filled Jenny with excitement. Jenny's eyes traveled over the numbers and instructions as if they were some juicy secret. Truth be told they were a secret, but they did not need to be hidden behind vague riddles, only an experienced scientist could read and understand the numbers.

Jenny quickly opened another file and let out a gasp. In the file were the blueprints to the archway in the room below. The file was an AutoCAD product and showed dimensions of seventy feet high and seventy feet acrossed, which were much larger than the dimensions of the one in the other room.

John may not have understood what was in the previous file, but he understood why the dimensions in the blueprint were so large, this new archway was meant for multiple people to pass through it at the same time.

"These blueprints are amazing. Sir I suggest we scrap the old version and work on building this newer version," commented Jenny.

"No, Scarp the old one and make a new one about the same size as the first, I want to field test it before we go public with it," said General Hooker, as he walked back to his desk and pulled out a little black flash drive of his own. "I want a copy of my own; you take that flash drive and have it analyzed. I want this project finished as soon as possible, and John."

"Yes general?" John asked in a respectful tone.

"I want you to watch this…Nule kid, I want to be the first to know of his progress, you understand?" asked the general.

"Yes sir."

00000

It had been almost a year since Nule had discovered his pendant had been a flash drive. At first Nule didn't know how to feel. He wanted to be angry at his mother, but then it was his fault for taking it in the first place, and so he felt like he should feel guilty. This lasted for a few days, before Nule had decided that he should feel neither angry nor guilty, After all if it helped the military they might let him go, but in those days curiosity had grown in Nule as well, and he found himself asking John about what was on the flash drive at every chance he got. John had ignored Nules' attempts to gain information, until Nule had embarrassed him in front of a group of soldiers. Nule had yelled at him and accused him of hiding something from him. The result had been a week of shortened meals for him and the men in his dormitory, after that Nule said very little to John but that was not what he had to worry about. The men that slept in the same room as him had been so angry with him that they had cornered him at every chance they got and beat him up, of course Nule was no push over, and he had managed to get a few good punches and kicks in, which left everyone at the end of the day tired and sore, more than usual.

That was not the only bit of punishment Nule had to endure. Everyday Nule had to go to classes that the military had claimed "Would save your life." Nule could not see how learning to decode a new language could save his life. His other classes had included disarming homemade bombs, and brain training. Brain training was setting a worksheet filled with thousands of symbols in front of him, and giving him one hour to find as many matches as he could. This would train his brain to look for patterns and things that stuck out.

Nule had at first neglected his studies, he had found them boring and not worth his time, but one day when he was sleeping, someone came into his dorm and woke every man up an hour early. When a soldier dressed in uniform stopped at his bed and told him he was scheduled for an hour extra training. He knew he would pay for slacking. That day as he walked out of the dorm in his underwear, as he was forced to begin immediately, he noticed the glares that his dorm mates gave him, and would give him for as long as this punishment lasted. Nule's extra training had turned out an extra hour of running early in the morning, before the sun had even risen. After Nule's extra training he was allowed to go back to the dorm and change into his training uniform, but was not allowed to rest.

This treatment lasted for three months, before Nule's "teacher" had decided that he was improving. On these days Nule had spent his free time sleeping, as he tried to get some of his energy back. Not much happened in the base other than training, the only real interesting thing that had happened was a few blackouts, which Nule recorded in a Journal as part of his brain training.

Nule now lay in his bed asleep, when suddenly the sound of loud banging woke Nule. Immediately Nule reached under his pillow and pulled out his knife, it was too early to be training time.

"What did you do this time Leo?" yelled one of his dorm mates. The dorm was filled with banging and the sound of Soldiers complaining at Nule. Suddenly the banging stopped but The soldiers were to fixed with bitching at Nule to have noticed, until a loud whistle broke into the yelling, and silenced everyone.

"I want complete silence!' yelled the familiar voice of John. "Despite what you might think, Nule has nothing to do with this early morning visit. You have five minutes to get dressed and in the cafeteria," said John as he walked out of the room.

Nule and the men dressed quickly, and made it to the cafeteria, only to find that the tables that had filled the room in an assortment of mix matched colors had been removed leaving only the concrete floor, and the hundreds of men and women who made up the base's recruits

"Don't just stand there, Get in line!" called out a man who had suddenly came up behind them. Without hesitation the men and Nule quickly strode over to the group of men and women and found themselves in the back of the last row.

Nule Sneaked a quick glance and saw that Corey Newloc had spoken to them. Nule had not seen Corey in nearly a year, and that had only been in a virtual simulator.

Questions buzzed in Nule's head_. "Could this lead to me helping them, and if so, what do they really want with me?" _Nule pushed the thought from his head, whatever they were doing, he would find out sooner or later.

Nule stood in line patently as he waited for them to talk to the recruits, or yell at them, or whatever it was that had led the higher ups to summoned them this early in the morning. As the time passed Nule could not help but look around, the recruits that he saw looked tired, and some were even sleeping while standing. Nule could not help but feel sorry for them, they were not used to getting up this early, Nule was of course, because of his "_extra training"_ but they had obeyed every order given to them and had not slacked off.

Unlike Nule these men and women were here on their own accord, they wanted to be here, Nule hoverer was forced to be here, he was held prisoner by his own promise. Sure Nule could break his promise and leave in the dead of night. He had learned enough skills here to have a good chance at doing it, but his dad had always taught him to keep his word, he didn't want to be like the military, lying cutthroats, who did whatever they wanted to whoever they wanted. Nule would play along with their game for now, just until he was sure the military no longer needed his help, after all he said he would help them, he never said anything about joining them.

It was another twenty minute before someone other than recruits showed up, a man wearing an unmistakable Generals uniform walked into the cafeteria. The guards that had been standing by the doors entrances saluted the man. This caught the attention of every recruit, some were elbowing there asleep friends trying to wake them up.

The General stared blankly at the recruits as if waiting for some unknown source to give him some sort of cue to start speaking. The general opened his mouth and began to speak in a clear and loud tone.

"You all have worked hard for the past year, you have become the best soldiers we could ask for, some of you will want to ship out immediately and take on the battle field, you will want to make your country proud, sadly none of you will be going overseas," a slight mummer went through the recruits at this, some gave angry grunts. They had trained for a year and they would not be able to put what they learned to save the lives of their families.

The General seeing the growing danger raised his voice over the crowd and spoke in his still calm voice. "Settle down, settle down now. Your training has not been in vain. It is the duty of the military to protect the American citizens, from all threats. I do not believe in superstitions, I believe in facts and the truth, and the truth is, the world is ending," said the general.

All the recruits, except Nule started to laugh, they thought it was a joke, but Nule didn't, Nule had been told by John. Nule had thought it was some trick, but he had thought it over during the months of his stay at the base, it made sense, there were odd weather changes, weird earthquakes, and monstrous tornados that tore entire towns apart. Nule was not into superstitions either, but he was reasonable.

"Do you think I got to where I am from cracking jokes?' asked the General in a loud voice, catching the attention of every recruit. "Scientists can confirm this, however this is not what we called you here for, near the beginning of the year, some new information came to us, that has helped us create a solution to the problem," said the General.

The room relaxed a little at the mention of a solution, no one wanted to die. Somewhere near the front of the group a recruit raised his hand. The general looked in his direction and nodded for him to speak.

"Sir what is this solution, and how can we help?" asked the recruit.

"I'm glad you asked, you see we were unable to find a way to fix the plant, so we tried to find another, but the closest would take us over a million years to reach, so we turned to another solution, our scientist have created a sort of gateway, that will allow us to find a new home, all you have to do is travel to our new home and maintain the peace of the civilians that we are transporting with us," replied the General.

"A gateway? You mean like off of stargate galactica," called out a female recruit.

"Miss you have watched too much TV for your own good, no it is not like Stargate Galactica, we do not know what inhabits this new land but that is why you are there, you are to protect the civilians with your life,"

"How will they get there," asked another recruit.

"When we were certain that the gateway worked we began building larger versions in major cities. The New York Yankees stadium has a fully functional gateway, and many other. We will transport fifteen thousand six hundred twenty five people from sixty four major cities, along with six hundred twenty five soldiers each from sixteen different bases."

More recruits were about to ask more questions, but the general held up his hands for silence.

You are to ask no more questions, just follow Major Hammocks and he will take you to the gateway, there you will be instructed on how to proceed."

With that, John exited the room with a loud yell of "March" with that every man and women followed John out into the training field. The training field had been cleared of all training equipment, where the wall clime used to be was a large archway. The inside of the archway was filled with nothing but blackness. Nothing on the other side of the arch could be seen through the middle.

Nule's mind was not on the arch; he was simply thinking over John's promotion, Nule immediately knew how he had gotten it. Whatever was on that flash drive defiantly made this possible and was so good, it landed captain John Hammocks the new job of Major John Hammocks.

Nule had not been paying attention, and was only brought back to his senses, when someone yelled at him.

"Are you listening to me?" said a voice. Nule looked up to see John was looking at him fiercely.

"What?" asked Nule completely dumbfounded?

"I said to keep your arms and legs together, and take a deep breath, once in there, you should keep your eyes close, you might get blinded." said John in a calm voice.

Nule nodded and looked in front of him only to see that he was the next person in line to enter the gateway. Nule sighed and took a deep breath before he plunged into the gateway. Immediately Nule felt his limbs being pulled from his body, Nule remembering John's advice, and forced his arms and legs together. Quickly remembering some more advice Nule closed his eyes tight. Nule felt himself drift for some time, while the force on his limbs increased; Nule forced himself to keep his arms and legs together.

Suddenly Nule fell to the ground on his hands and knees.

**00000**

**Ok so this chapter has been fixed to the best of my knowledge, however, if you should find some mistakes feel free to tell me and I will fix them. **


	4. The Inhabitants

First Impressions

"Things just got a whole lot more interesting," said John as he gave the binoculars to Nule.

Nule took them and looked off in the direction the dragon had flown in. Even with the military lenses Nule could only see a speck flying away.

"How the hell are we supposed to survive in this freaking place, when there are dragons flying around?" asked a man not at all being quite.

"First off, you're talking to a superior officer, so watch that tone of yours, second, We don't know how many dragons there are here, or if their even a threat, for all we know they might not even be able to breathe fire, they could be completely harmless, and it is for _**that**_exact reason we're out here. Scout the native species, remember," John exhibited such force with so few words. The eyes of every man and women were staring at John, each letting his words sink in.

Nule had seen this kind of behavior from his father, he never allowed any doubt or weakness to get in the way of success, whether it be building a new shed or hunting deer, his father always showed strength, of course that had changed, when his father came back from his last war. The man Nule had looked up to had quickly turned into a drunk, and while his father never beat Nule, the words he spoke to his son had somehow cut deeper than any knife.

Nule shook his head as he cleared his mind of this thought, it did him no good to think of his father, especially now.

"What's our next move sir?" asked Nule trying to keep respect in his voice.

"Simple, we stay here and watch that city; we count how many dragons return and how many leave," came the short reply."Then when it turns dark we sneak into the city and we look around, once we get the information we need we go back to the camp."

Nule nodded as did most of the soldiers. Nule and John had spent most of the day watching the city, while the other soldiers occupied there time by playing little games, like rock, paper, and scissors, or I spy, and even twenty questions. Nule did not join them in their games, mostly because John would not allow it; for fear that Nule might run off. Another reason why he did not partake in their little games as he found them boring. True there was a time when he would play those childish games, but that was when he was a child, too much had happened now for him to be considered a child

Several dragons had entered and exited the city. Some who entered had been working as a group to carry what appeared to be large stones, only to leave seconds later carrying smaller rocks out of the city, and return with even more large stones. It took about five dragons just to carry the large stones, some would even return with much larger stones that took twenty dragons to lift, how the dragons managed to pick up these stones was a mystery to John and Nule, but they had other things on their minds, like "_what are they doing, and why were they bringing large stones into the city."_

The day quickly turned from light to dark, but the lights in the city did not extinguish. Bright orange light lit up the night and kept the city in great view. It would be impossible to miss the city from far away or in the sky even.

The group waited for half an hour for the lights to go out, but was disappointed when the lights still burned brightly. John who was tired of waiting had informed the group that a small squad of only five men would be going into the city to examine the native people.

It had been decided that five soldiers to go into the city was: John, Nule, a women named Jesse, a man named Marcuse, and a man named Anthony, or Tony, as he liked to be called. Once the five had checked their gear, and had detached a improved plow steel wire rope with a hook on the end, from a device that he previously shot it, the four men and women set out at a jog to the cities walls.

With the heavy gear on and the guns slung over their backs, the trip was tiring and took them nearly an hour and a half to reach the wall. They had first noticed that the city was larger than they had first thought. The wall protecting the city was thirty feet high, John had commented on how the entire city must lay on three hundred acres of land.

Once they had reached the wall, the five soldiers took a short break to catch their breath, but once they were ready John took the wire rope, and swung it like a lasso, and attempted to make the hook catch on the edge of the wall. It took John three tries to catch the hook on an edge, but once it did John gave an experimental tug and determined it was safe. Nule was the first up the rope as John had clearly stated he did not trust Nule to stay put.

With that in mind Nule shimmied his way up the wire rope until he reached the top. Once there he attempted to pull himself up over the wall, but quickly ducked down as a shadow passed over him. Cautiously Nule looked over the side of the wall and saw a large dragon walk by. The dragon was a dark green, which was made darker thanks to the black of night. The dragon had a brown underbelly, two earthy looking horns curved backwards like a ram's and a large spiked ball on the end of its tail. Nule both marveled and trembled at the sight of the dragon.

The dragon didn't seem to have noticed Nule and so continued to walk on. Nule waited until the dragon had disappeared behind a wall, before pulling himself up onto the wall. The other four made it up the wall without any problems. Nule had wanted to talk to John and let him know what he had seen, but John had simply said, "We don't have time for this,"

The five followed the wall as they looked for a way onto the ground level. They speed walked in the direction the dragon had come from, trying to keep an eye out for any stairs, but Nule"s attention was dragged to the inside of the wall. There were large towers each made of stone, but some of these buildings were destroyed or were being pulled down, while other buildings were being built up.

The light from torches which were placed all around the city, illuminated the construction site, and made it easy to see that there were small creatures breaking the large stones into smaller stones more easily usable for creating walls. Nule was astonished by what he was seeing. It made sense to him. The dragons brought the material and the little creatures built the towers, but who were the towers and buildings for. The buildings were much too large for the little creatures to use, and there was no way the dragons could live in them, they were too big and were always growing, right?

Nule was so mesmerized by the compatibility of the two species that he almost ran into John. The group had arrived at a set of stairs leading down. John peeked around the corner to check for anyone who might be passing by, but there were none. With a quick motion of his hands John signaled the group to move out. The group quickly moved from their spot and made their way acrossed a large street the group quickly hid behind a building. The group moved stealthily through the city sticking to the shadows and making as little noise as possible, however they did not see the glowing pair of emerald eyes watching them from the shadows.

00000

Demos had started his day like any other. He had woken up an hour before the sun had risen, and walked to the balcony. He enjoyed the sight of the morning sun as it rose in the sky, and this was the only bit of peace he got. Most of the dragons didn't like him, it was only by the fact that Spyro was his friend and his sister was his mate that they didn't try to fight him, but of course he could always take care of himself.

Demos sighed, as he was obligated to help the moles and the guardians rebuild Warfang, of course Demos had no problems doing some work, it was the fact that he was out in the open, it had been a year since Spyro and Cynder had beaten the dark master, but Demos was still cautious. He would never forget the three years he was forced to fight.

Demos pushed those thoughts from his head, there was no reason to dwindle on the past, it had happened and it had passed, the only thing that mattered now was to fix Warfang and make sure the dragons didn't die out.

Demos sat on his balcony, and waited for the sun to come up, his mind wondering to things that could happened, and if the dragon realms would ever be peaceful, when the sun suddenly peaked over the horizon, and casting large shadows from the buildings in the way.

Demos sighed, any minute now Cynder was going to walk in that door and ask him if he wanted breakfast, and of course he would always answer the same way every day, "does the sun rise every morning?" and of course they would laugh, at Demos's dry humor. That was the best thing about Cynder, she never judged him, or argued with him. They would have little disagreements sometime s, but that would never turn into a shouting match, they would usually find a way to solve their problem, by going to the library and searching for the topic of their disagreements. Demos showed the same kindness to her as she showed to him; He would never call her names, or bring up her past, and even when it turned out that he was right, he never rubbed it in.

Demos heard the slight sound of creaking as the large wooden door opened. Sure enough there was Cynder's voice.

"Hey do you want to get some breakfast?"

"Does the sun rise every morning?" replied Demos. As expected Cynder let out a little giggle that made Demos's heart warm up. His sister always had the gentlest voice, and it always made him happy to know that she was happy.

Demos stood up and walk over to the door with Cynder, and they both left to go to the dining hall. The hallways were empty, like they were every day, no dragons had moved in yet, in fact the dragon city used to be filled with over ten thousand dragons at one time, of course now there were only twenty dragons not including Spyro, Cynder, and himself.

They had arrived at the dining hall and sat in their favorite spot. Immediately A mole rushed over to them and asked them what they wanted to eat. Demos always chose sheep meat, while Cynder always went for the deer meat. Their morning always went the same, first they would eat, usually by themselves, since Spyro got up early to help rebuild Warfang, after which they would leave and find the mole in charge of all construction plans.

The process of construction was simple, adult dragons would brink large stones, then the moles would break them up into usable parts, they would then place them on a cart and a dragon (Usually Demos) would pull the stones to a construction area unload the stones, and return to carry more stones to designated building spots.

The moles, a small race of builders, were very fast and efficient, which was contrary to their small size. Demos had once read in a book in the temple library that the moles had built Warfang in a matter of four or five years.

As expected the head mole had given Demos cart duty. Demos didn't hate cart duty, in fact he enjoyed it, and it allowed him to keep in shape as he pulled a cart filled with four hundred pounds of stone, which thanks to the wheels only felt like two hundred pounds. Demos carried stones all day, which at the end of the day left him sweaty, and tired, and was just about to go back to the temple, when out of the corner of his eye he saw movement, Demos froze, and quickly turned his head casually and watched.

He waited for a minute or two, and was about to leave, thinking it had only been his imagination, when suddenly five figures ran out from behind a building and moved through the streets. Demos watched them, and was instantly on alert. The figures were too tall to be moles; they didn't have tails, so they couldn't be the cheetah.

Something inside of Demos stirred as the figures felt familiar. It was the way they ran, and how they carried themselves. Suddenly they passed through a torch lamp, their faces where bare, and it seemed that only the tops of their heads held any type of fur. Demos suddenly remembered where he had seen these creatures before, and if they were here, them it meant no good for the dragons. Demos took to the sky and followed the five creatures.

00000

The small unit moved through the streets fast. They were always in the shadows, or quickly got to the shadows. Why it was then that Nule had the unmistakable feeling that someone was watching them? It was a little prickle in the back of his neck, but every time he turned around, there was no one there. Nule remembering that there were dragons looked up into the sky, but every time he did, that little prickle in the back of his neck would go away, but would quickly come back as soon as he looked away.

This went on for several minutes until they had arrived at what appeared to be a construction site. The workers were small little creatures which resembled moles. They wore what appeared to be googols.

"Okay, this is what we do…" started John, before a deep voice behind him cut him off.

"You leave now.' Everyone turned around only to see a medium sized dragon looking at them with eyes filled with hate. The dragon had midnight black scales, and a purple under belly. He had three horns one on each side of his head, and one on the back of his head, all of which were curved backwards, and a pair of emerald green eyes, which glowed in the dark. The dragon barred it teeth showing sharp gleaming white canines.

The man closest to the dragon fumbled with his gun, but the dragon turned and slapped the gun out of his hands. The gun slide acrossed the ground and hit a wall. Suddenly there was a loud banging noise as the gun discharged it magazine. The dragon did not seem to be fazed by the sound of the gun, and it slowly started to walk towards the group. They backed up slowly, others trying to get their guns out, but the dragon suddenly opened its mouth and let out one of the most terrible screams Nule had ever heard. Everyone covered their ears desperately hoping to stop the ringing that had started.

The group had unknowingly backed up out of the shadows, and into the construction site, where the moles who were working, had been attracted to the sound of gunfire, and the dragons scream. The small moles surrounded the group of humans. Nule happened to look up only to see three large forms flying towards them, a few seconds three large dragons landed nearby and were shouting to make way

The first dragon was the green dragon that Nule had seen earlier. The second was a blue dragon with a bluish purple under belly, and the third was a yellow dragon with a dark blue underbelly. The three large dragons, stood on the opposite side of the black dragon, they looked from the black dragon to the five humans, who were slowly picking themselves up off of the ground.

"What happened here Demos?" asked the green dragon. He had a deep commanding voice that hinted as years of fighting experience.

"They broke into Warfang; I was only protecting myself and everyone inside," replied the dragon named Demos. Nule determined that based on his voice the dragon was a young male.

"And what is it you were protecting us from?" asked the blue dragon. He too was male, and his voice was filled with mock and pride.

"Them," Demos indicated the five humans who were standing back to back, four with semiautomatic guns pointing everywhere, and one with a hand gun, aimed at the black dragon.

The Yellow dragon moved closer, to the humans who tensed up. Nule had his gun pointed directly at the yellow dragon, but the dragon didn't seem hostile, simply curios.

"Marvelous, absolutely incredible. Terrador, it would seem that these five creatures resemble the apes, of course there are some major differences, like lack of body hair, taller and leaner frames, and they seem to be more civilized than the apes, they have yet to attack us," commented the yellow dragon. He too was male and his had a tongue as fast as lighting, which made it almost too hard to understand him at all.

"Their humans, their just like the apes, they may look different, but their just as dangerous, Terrador, you have to believe me, there are more out there, and the more there are of them the greater the danger they pose to us," there was pleading in the young dragons voice, and it was very clear, that he was scared, but also angry.

"Hold on one second," said John clearly hating the fact that they were being talked about, but being totally ignored. Immediately all heads turned to John. "Remove your weapons and place them on the ground now." Without hesitation all the humans including Nule placed their primary and secondary gun on the ground.

"A show of faith, where not here to harm anybody, we were just gathering information, that's all," Nule mentally sighed

"Information? Information for what?" asked the green dragon called Terrador.

John had requested somewhere more personal, and so the four dragons walked to what the dragons had called the dragon temple. Demos had argued that the humans should be terminated, or else the dragon race would be gone forever. The three large dragons had ignored him as they told him that the humans had done nothing wrong so far.

The dragons had led the humans through the many halls of the dragon temple, they were led into a large chamber, the walls, which were made of stone, was as smooth as obsidian, and the walls held four banners each a different color, and each holding a different symbol. Nule recognized two of them, the red banner which held the symbol of fire, and the yellow banner, which was a lightning bolt. This had caught Nule off guard. Could the coloration of a dragon determine its element, and if so what would happen if two dragons from different elements got together, and what did the other symbols represent.

The three adult dragons had taken a seat under a banner that resembled its scale color, while Demos stayed in the shadows keeping an eye on the humans. John then explained to the guardians, as they had been notified of their position in the dragon community, how they had gotten here, and how they only wanted to survive. Demos had mumbled something about killing off the dragon race, that no one except Nule seemed to hear.

The dragons didn't want any trouble from the humans, and the humans didn't want to cause any trouble, or at least Nule didn't want to cause any trouble, it came to the point that John had suggested that the humans help with the rebuilding of the dragon city, on the condition that the dragons help them build a city for the humans to stay in. Arrangements took several hours to get every detail worked out, but once finished, the humans left the dragon temple, and to a greater extent the dragon city, which they had learned was called Warfang. The five humans quickly made their way back to the human encampment to give the general some good news.

00000

**That is another chapter improved, this is the second one in a day, at this rate I should be done with in the next week or so.**


	5. First Impressions

**Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Spyro characters, such as Spyro Cynder, the guardians and so on. I only own my characters such as Nule, Sven, Sarah, and Demos**

**Authors Note: So this is the fifth chapter, first off I would like to thank Darkfire Dragon28 and whoever posted as guest. Thank you for taking the time to review my story, it really means a lot to me to know people actually care about the story.**

**On another note I will try to post as soon as I can, but remember a good story takes time, so just stay in there, and wait for my next chapter, and also you will see a appearance from Demos, keep in mind Demos's presence in this story will have no effect on the fourth lost siblings book but that does not mean that info for the fourth book will be changed. A kind of spoiler if you will, also note that I will start typing the third book to lost siblings as soon as I am finished with this story.**

**00000**

**First Impressions **

"Things just got a whole lot more interesting," said John as he gave the binoculars to Nule.

Nule took them and looked off in the direction the dragon had flown in. Even with the military lenses Nule could only see a speck flying away.

"How the hell are we supposed to survive in this freaking place, when there are dragons flying around?" asked a man not at all being quite.

"First off, you're talking to a superior officer, so watch that tone of yours, second, We don't know how many dragons there are here, or if their even a threat, for all we know they might not even be able to breathe fire, they could be completely harmless, and it is for _that _exact reason we're out here. Scout the native species, remember," John exhibited such force with so few words. The eyes of every man and women were staring at John, each letting his words sink in.

Nule had seen this kind of behavior from his father, he never showed let any doubt or weakness get in the way of success, whether it be building a new shed or hunting deer, his father always showed strength, of course that had changed, when his father came back from his last war. The man Nule had looked up to had quickly turned into a drunk, and while his father never beat Nule, the words he spoke to his son had somehow cut deeper than any knife.

Nule shook his head as he cleared his head of this thought, it did him no good to think of his father, especially now.

"What's our next move sir?" asked Nule trying to keep respect in his voice.

"Simple, we stay here and watch that city; we count how many dragons return and how many leave," came the short reply."Then when it turns dark we sneak into the city and we look around, once we get the information we need we go back to the camp."

Nule nodded as did most of the soldiers. Nule and John had spent most of the day watching the city, while the other soldiers occupied there time by playing little games, like rock, paper, and scissors, or I spy, and even twenty questions. Nule did not join them in their games, mostly because John would not allow it; for fear that Nule might run off. Another reason why he did not partake in their little games was he found them boring. True there was a time when he would play those childish games, but that was when he was a child, too much had happened now for him to be considered a child

Several dragons had entered and exited the city. Some who entered had been working as a group to carry what appeared to be large stones, only to leave seconds later carrying smaller rocks out of the city, and return with even more large stones. It took about five dragons just to carry the large stones, some would even return with much larger stones that took twenty dragons to lift, how the dragons managed to pick up these stones was a mystery to John and Nule, but they had other things on their minds, like "_what where they doing, and why were they bringing large stones into the city."_

The day quickly turned from light to dark, but the lights in the city did not extinguish. Bright orange light lit up the night and kept the city in great view. It would be impossible to miss the city from far away or in the sky even.

The group waited for half an hour for the lights to go out, but was disappointed when the lights still burned brightly. John who was tired of waited had informed the group that a small squad of only five men would be going into the city to examine the native people.

It had been decided that five soldiers to go into the city was: John Nule, a women named Jesse, a man named Marcuse, and a man named Anthony, or Tony, as he liked to be called. Once the five had checked their gear, and had detached a improved plow steel wire rope with a hook on the end, from a device that he previously shot it, the four men and women set out at a jog to the cities walls.

With the heavy gear on and the guns slung over their backs, the trip was tiring and took them nearly an hour and a half to reach the wall. They had first noticed that the city was larger than they had first thought. The wall protecting the city was thirty feet high, John had commented on how the entire city must lay on three hundred acres of land.

Once they had reached the wall, the five soldiers took a short break to catch their breath, but once they were ready John took the wire rope, and swung it like a lasso, and attempted to make the hook catch on the edge of the wall. It took John three tries to catch the hook on an edge, but once it did John gave an experimental tug and determined it was safe. Nule was the first up the rope as John had clearly stated he did not trust Nule to stay put.

With that in mind Nule shimmied his way up the wire rope until he reached the top. Once there he attempted to pull himself up over the wall, but quickly ducked down as a shadow passed over him. Cautiously Nule looked over the side of the wall and saw a large dragon walk by. The dragon was a dark green, which was made darker thanks to the dark night. The dragon had a brown underbelly, two earthy looking horns curved backwards like a ram's and a large spiked ball on the end of its tail. Nule both marveled and trembled at the sight of the dragon.

The dragon didn't seem to have noticed Nule and so continued to walk on. Nule waited until the dragon had disappeared behind a wall, before pulling himself up onto the wall. The other four made it up the wall without any problems. Nule has wanted to talk to John and let him know what he had seen, but John had simply said, "We don't have time for this,"

The five followed the wall as they looked for a way onto the ground level. They speed walked in the direction the dragon had come from, trying to keep an eye out for any stairs, but Nule"s attention was dragged to the inside of the wall. There were large towers each made of stone, but some of these buildings were destroyed or were being pulled down, while other buildings were being built up.

The light from torches which were placed all around the city, illuminated the construction site, and made it easy to see that there were small creatures breaking the large stones into smaller stones more easily usable for creating walls. Nule was astonished by what he was seeing. It made sense to him. The dragons brought the material and the little creatures built the towers, but who were the towers and buildings for. The buildings were much too large for the little creatures to use, and there was no way the dragons could live in them, they were too big and were always growing, right?

Nule was so mesmerized by the compatibility of the two species that he almost ran into John. The group had arrived at a set of stairs leading down. John peeked around the corner to check for anyone who might be passing by, but there were none. With a quick motion of his hands John signaled the group to move out. The group quickly moved from their spot and made their way acrossed a large street the group quickly hid behind a building. The group moved stealthily through the city sticking to the shadows and making as little noise as possible, however they did not see the glowing pair of emerald eyes watching them from the shadows.

**00000**

Demos had started his day like any other. He had woken up an hour before the sun had risen, and walked to the balcony. He enjoyed the sight of the morning sun as it rose in the sky, and this was the only bit of peace he got. Most of the dragons didn't like him, it was only by the fact that Spyro was his friend and his sister was his mate, but of course he could always take care of himself.

Demos sighed, as he was obligated to help the moles and the guardians help rebuild Warfang, of course Demos had no problems doing some work, it was the fact that he was out in the open, it had been a year since Spyro and Cynder had beaten the dark master, but Demos was still cautious. He would never forget the three years he was forced to fight.

Demos pushed those thoughts from his head, there was no reason to dwindle on the past, it had happened and it had passed, the only thing that mattered now was to fix Warfang and make sure dragons didn't die out.

Demos sat on his balcony, and waited for the sun to come up, his mind wondering to things that could happened, and if the dragon realms would ever be peaceful, when the sun suddenly peaked over the horizon, and casting large shadows from the buildings in the way.

Demos sighed, any minute now Cynder was going to walk in that door and ask him if he wanted breakfast, and of course he would always answer the same way every day, "does the sun rise every morning?" and of course they would laugh, at Demos's dry humor. That was the best thing about Cynder, she never judged him, or argued with him. They would have little disagreements sometime s, but that would never turn into a shouting match, they would usually find a way to solve their problem, by going to the library and searching for the topic of their disagreements. Demos showed the same kindness to her as she showed to him; He would never call her names, or bring up her past, and even when it turned out that he was right, he never rubbed it in.

Demos heard the slight sound of creaking as the large wooden door opened. Sure enough there was Cynder's voice.

"Hey do you want to get some breakfast?"

"Does the sun rise every morning?" replied Demos. As expected Cynder let out a little giggle that made Demos's heart warm up. His sister always had the gentlest voice, and it always made him happy to know that she was happy.

Demos stood up and walk over to the door with Cynder, and they both left to go to the dining hall. The hallways were empty, like they were every day, no dragons had moved in yet, in fact the dragon city used to be filled with over a ten thousand dragons at one time, of course now there were only twenty dragons not including Spyro, Cynder, and himself.

They had arrived at the dining hall and sat in their favorite spot. Immediately A mole rushed over to them and asked them what they wanted to eat. Demos always chose sheep meat, while Cynder always went for the deer meat. Their morning always went the same, first they would eat, usually by themselves, since Spyro got up early to help rebuild Warfang, after which they would leave and find the mole in charge of all construction plans.

The process of construction was simple, adult dragons would brink large stones, then the moles would break them up into usable parts, they would then place them on a cart and a dragon (Usually Demos) would pull the stones to a construction area unload the stones, and return to carry more stones to designated building spots.

The moles, a small race or builders, were very fast and efficient, which was contrary to their small size. Demos had once read in a book in the temple library that the moles had built Warfang in a matter of four or five years.

As expected the head mole had given Demos cart duty. Demos didn't hate cart duty, in fact he enjoyed it, and it allowed him to keep in shape as he pulled a cart filled with four hundred pounds of stone, which thanks to the wheels only felt like two hundred pounds. Demos carried stones all day, which at the end of the day left him sweat, and tired, and was just about to go back to the temple, when out of the corner of his eye he saw movement, Demos froze, and quickly turned his head casually and watched.

He waited for a minute or two, and was about to leave, thinking it had only been his imagination, when suddenly five figures ran out from behind a building and moved through the streets. Demos watched them, and was instantly on alert. The figures were too tall to be moles; they didn't have tails, so they couldn't be the cheetah.

Something inside of Demos stirred as they figures felt familiar. It was the way they ran, and how they carried themselves. Suddenly they passed through a torch lamp, their faces where bare, and it seemed tat only the tops of their heads held any type of fur. Demos suddenly remembered where he had seen these creatures before, and if they were here, them it meant no good for the dragons. Demos took to the sky and followed the five creatures.

**00000**

The small unit moved through the streets fast. They were always in the shadows, or quickly got to the shadows. Why it was then that Nule had the unmistakable feeling that someone was watching them? It was a little prickle in the back of his neck, but every time he turned around, there was no one there. Nule remembering that there were dragons looked up into the sky, but every time he did, that little prickle in the back of his neck would go away, but would quickly come back as soon as he looked away.

This went on for several minutes until they had arrived at what appeared to be a construction site. The workers were small little creatures which resembled moles. They wore what appeared to be googols.

"Okay, this is what we do…" started John, before a deep voice behind him cut him off.

"You leave now.' Everyone turned around only to see a medium sized dragon looking at them with eyes filled with hate. The dragon had midnight black scales, and a purple under belly. He had three horns one on each side of his head, and one on the back of his head, all of which were curved backwards, and a pair of emerald green eyes, which glowed in the dark. The dragon barred it teeth showing sharp gleaming white canines.

The man closest to the dragon fumbled with his gun, but the dragon turned and slapped the gun out of his hands. The gun slide acrossed the ground and hit a wall. Suddenly there was a loud bang noise as the gun discharged it magazine. The dragon did not seem to be fazed by the sound of the gun, and it slowly started to walk towards the group. They backed up slowly, others trying to get their guns out, but the dragon suddenly opened its mouth and let out one of the most terrible screams Nule had ever heard. Everyone covered their eyes desperately hoping to stop the ringing that had started up inside their ears.

The group had unknowingly backed up out of the shadows, and into the construction site, where the moles who were working, had been attracted to the sound of gunfire, and the dragons scream. The small moles surrounded the group of humans. Nule happened to look up only to see three large forms flying towards them, a few seconds three large dragons landed nearby and were shouting to make way

The first dragon was the green dragon that Nule had seen earlier. The second was a blue dragon with a bluish purple under belly, and the third was a yellow dragon with a dark blue underbelly. The three large dragons, stood on the opposite side of the black dragon, they looked from the black dragon to the five humans, who were slowly picking themselves up off of the ground.

"What happened here Demos?" asked the green dragon. He had a deep commanding voice that hinted as years of fighting experience.

"They broke into Warfang; I was only protecting myself and everyone inside," replied the dragon named Demos. Nule determined that based on his voice the dragon was a young male.

"And what is it you were protecting us from?" asked the blue dragon. He too was male, and his voice was filled with mock and pride.

"Them," Demos indicated the five humans who were standing back to back, four with semiautomatic guns pointing everywhere, and one with a hand gun, aimed at the black dragon.

The Yellow dragon moved closer, to the humans who tensed up. Nule had his gun pointed directly at the yellow dragon, but the dragon didn't seem hostile, simply curios.

"Marvelous, absolutely incredible. Terrador, it would seem that these five creatures resemble the apes, of course there are some major differences, like lack of body hair, taller and leaner frames, and they seem to be more civilized than the apes, they have yet to attack us," commented the yellow dragon. He too was male and his had a tongue as fast as lighting, which made it almost too hard to understand him at all.

"Their humans, their just like the apes, they may look different, but their just as dangerous, Terrador, you have to believe me, there are more out there, and the more there are of them the greater the danger they pose to us," there was pleading in the young dragons voice, and it was very clear, that he was scared, but also angry.

"Hold on one second," said John clearly hating the fact that they were being talked about, but being totally ignored. Immediately all heads turned to John. "Remove your weapons and place them on the ground now." Without hesitation all the humans including Nule placed their primary and secondary gun on the ground.

"A show of faith, where not here to harm anybody, we were just gathering information, that's all," Nule mentally sighed

"Information? Information for what?" asked the green dragon called Terrador.

John had requested somewhere more personal, and so the four dragons walked to what the dragons had called the dragon temple. Demos had argued that the humans should be terminated, or else the dragon race would be gone forever. The three large dragons had ignored him as they told him that the humans had done nothing wrong so far.

The dragons had led the humans through the many halls of the dragon temple, they were led into a large chamber, the walls, which were made of stone, was as smooth as obsidian, and the walls held four banners each a different color, and each holding a different symbol. Nule recognized two of them, the red banner which held the symbol of fire, and the yellow banner, which was a lightning bolt. This had caught Nule off guard. Could the coloration of a dragon determine its element, and if so what would happen if two dragons from different elements got together, and what did the other symbols represent.

The three adult dragons had taken a seat under a banner that resembled its scale color, while Demos stayed in the shadows keeping an eye on the humans. John then explained to the guardians –as they had been notified of their position in the dragon community- how they had gotten here, and how they only wanted to survive. Demos had mumbled something about killing off the dragon race, that no one except Nule seemed to hear.

The dragons didn't want any trouble from the humans, and the humans didn't want to cause any trouble- or at least Nule didn't want to cause any trouble,- it came to the point that John had suggested that the humans help with the rebuilding of the dragon city, on the condition that the dragons help them build a city for the humans to stay in. Arrangements took several hours to get every detail worked out, but once finished, the humans left the dragon temple, and to a greater extent the dragon city, which they had learned was called Warfang. The five humans quickly made their way back to the human encampment to give the general some good news.

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**Yes! I have managed to get this chapter out sooner than I would have thought. Anyways what will happen now that the guardians have discovered a new species? Can there be peace between the two species or will the humans ruin it. Stay tuned for the next exiting instilment of Survival to learn the answer to all these questions and more.**

**Again thank you all for reviewing again, I love when you review because it makes me feel like I am doing a good job, so keep it up and I will continue to post chapters.**


	6. Life in the Dragon Realms

**00000**

**Life in the Dragon Realms**

John, Nule and the other three had left Warfang immediately and make their way back to the human camp in a matter of two days. They had explained to the general about the dragons and the proposition that was made with them. The general had agreed to the terms, and quickly had someone make up plans for the new city. Pretty soon the civilians became restless, they wanted to know what was happening, and more importantly they wanted to know who was in charge.

Most of the soldiers had elected the general to take command of the entire human population, but he had respectfully denied, claiming that being a general and a leader would give him too much power. Not long after the civilians started to hold campaigns, to see who would be the new leader. The soldiers, who saw this as a threat, alerted the general, who took over a dictator position for a few days, while they moved the entire human population to Warfang. Once they arrived at Warfang, the moles who had been instructed to build a city for the humans were given the blueprints for the new human city.

Some of the civilians who had been good with their hands before the trip – as the humans had begun to call it,- had agreed to help the moles rebuild Warfang. Sleeping arrangements had been made for the humans, most of the buildings that hadn't been destroyed could easily hold a hundred people in each room, however the amount of buildings that had not been destroyed were very few, and so most people found their sleeping quarters very cramped.

It had taken two years for all the buildings in Warfang to be rebuilt, but once it was, the humans were amazed by the sheer size of the city, it took another five years for the human city to be finished, but once done, it had been named Donum Dracones, which was Latin for gift of the dragons. It was by this time that a representative of the people had been chosen, a female by the name of Lydia.

The first year that the humans were in the dragon realms – as they had been informed soon after arriving at Warfang,- had not been easy, some of the native species that had lived there for generations grew uncomfortable with the presence of the humans. Nule had constantly heard some of the dragons and the cheetah- large cat like creatures that resembled anthro cheetahs- say that the humans looked too much like the apes. Apes as Nule had discovered after asking a dragon, were evil creatures that had try too destroy the world.

Lydia -who was now considered a queen by the time Donum Dracones was finished- had wanted to show the dragons and cheetah that they were friendly, and so she had banned the use of all firearms, and had decided that They should go back to the use of blades, instead of bullets, this of course assured most of the dragons and cheetahs, that the humans would not grow to powerful, however most of the humans were outraged, they had claimed that without guns, the dragons could easily wipe out the entire human population with just their size, and the fact that they could fly, and spew fire, ice , earth, and electricity from their mouths was a great advantage to them.

Now that the city had been finished most of the people quickly learned to go on with their lives, Nule especially, and he soon got into a pattern which started out as a simple, morning run. Nule had long ago quit the military; the experience did not go over well with John, who had tried to stop him from leaving by giving him a promotion. Nule who was uninterested in the military had told John in an impolite way where he could stick his promotion. That had been two years before Donum Dracones had been finished.

Nule had kept up with his military routine, and would do a morning run to keep in shape. It was on this run that he noticed he was running a little faster, than normal. Nule had of course thought nothing of it, and simply brushed it off, thinking he'd made himself faster. The next day when he was exiting his house, he had grabbed his door knob to hard and dented it, and on top of that he could now hear people talking very clearly from a block away.

Nule had gotten a job as a blacksmith's apprentice, and was currently learning the skill of crafting hot metal into sharp steel. The days were long, and, hot, but Nule found that he was learning the craft very quickly, in fact the first day he had watched the blacksmith, -a Japanese man by the name of Ryu,- he found that he could copy what he had done fairly easily with only five mistakes.

Nule liked his boss Ryu, he wasn't like other bosses who wanted you to be on time, he was ok with being a few minutes late, and he never yelled at Nule. Nule had never really liked those with authority, but Ryu was alright, he wasn't like most bosses, he would point out Nules mistakes, but he would also help him correct his mistakes, by the end of Nules sixth month as a blacksmiths apprentice, he had successfully crafted a scimitar sword for a man who had volunteered to guard the city.

One day as Nule was walking to see Ryu, he distinctly heard the sound of wing beating against the wind, when Nule looked up into the sky he could see a tiny dot in the horizon approaching fast. Nule looked around to see if anyone else heard a dragon approaching, but everyone went on their way to their jobs or to the market, that was the thing about humans, they always seemed to have food to spare, Not far from Donum Dracones, were three acres of farmland, where they grew crops like corn, wheat and barley, along with a variety of green vegetables.

Several minutes passed, and finally the sound of wings beats could be heard by everyone. The civilians stopped and looked to the sky to see a large green dragon landing in the center of the city. Nule recognized the dragon as the guardian of earth, Terrador.

"What is he doing here?" Nule asked himself. The last time Nule had seen him was two years ago, when he and John had reported to them about the process of the human city.

The only time the dragons came to Donum Dracones, was when winter came, that was the thing with dragons, they were kind by nature, and they seemed to help every species that could speak a comprehensible sentence.

Nules curiosity got the better of him, quickly checking the sky, Nule determined that it was till early in the morning, and therefore he could take a small detour. Changing direction, Nule quickly ran towards where Terrador had landed, Nule dodged past people, who turned to stare at him as he sped on by.

Nule soon caught up with the dragon, and found that he was walking towards Lydia's home. Lydia's house was not like a castle, true her house was as large as four regular houses. Lydia's house was two stories high. Nule cursed, he should have known, Terrador was a dragon of great importance, it would clearly make sense that he would only talk to a human of great importance.

Nule was about to turn around, when Terrador deep voice cut through the silence that had accumulated like a thick fog.

"I need to talk to Lydia, Now!" Terrador's voice was riddled with anger, which made Nule turn around, Nule had never heard a dragon sound angry, before, especially the guardians, they always kept their cool.

Something in Terrador's voice made Nule shiver. The people who were close enough to hear the green dragon flinched at his voice. Humans were not used to large creatures that could talk, and when it sounded angry, most humans took it as a threat.

The guards that stood outside of Lydia's house shuffled forward before one of them spoke in a nervous voice.

"Anything you have to say to Lydia, you can say to us," Terrador glared at the puny human who had come forward; there was anger, and wrath in his eyes, which made the soldier shrink away.

Several Soldiers rushed inside, so as to get away from the dragon, several seconds later Lydia stepped out of the house surrounded by her guards. Lydia was a tall woman who stood just less than six feet; she had long brown hair, and equally brown piercing eyes.

"Do not come to our city and cause discomfort," Lydia sounded angry as well, yet her silky voice, was no match to Terrador's

"We need to speak, now!" whispered Terrador, his voice still loud enough for everyone to hear. Lydia looked around and saw every eye on her and Terrador. She cleared her face of all anger and put on a mask of fake joy.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, don't worry our gracious host wishes to speak to me, there is nothing to fear, please go on with your day." Amazingly everyone seemed to take her word for it and moved on with their business.

Nule was not convinced with her by her soft words, something was not right, it was the way she looked at everyone, and the way Terrador stood, he was alert as if expecting an attack. Lydia whispered something to Terrador, who nodded and they walked off around the back of Lydia's house. Nule was to curious, he had to know what was going on.

Nule looked around for somewhere to listen in on their conversation. His eyes swept over the surrounding area. The closest building was too far away to jump onto her roof, and there was a large fence blocking the building off so no one could just walk in. There had to be some way in. suddenly Nule spotted a watch tower, he looked from the watch tower to the fence and found that it was a far jump, but he might be able to make it. Without hesitation Nule made his way over to the watchtower, and began to climb.

Amazingly no one seemed to have noticed Nule climbing the tower. Once Nule reached the top he backed up as far as he could go, and with only a moment's hesitation ran as fast as he could, and jumped once he reached the edge. Nule sailed through the air, and miraculously landed on the fences edge. There was a brief moment where Nule's balance shifted and he almost fell, but Nule quickly corrected it and jumped inside of the fence.

Nule landed on a soft patch of green grass, Nule looked around and found that no one was around, Nule quickly ran to the back of the house, where he could distinctly hear the sound of Lydia and Terrador talking.

"What are you saying?" asked Lydia clearly distraught.

"I'm saying, one of your people has broken the law you made, and has killed a dragon," came Terradors voice anger leaking in every sentence.

A dragon was dead, how could this be, and what law had this human broken. Nule was so confused, why would someone kill a dragon, unless the dragon had attacked someone, which seemed very unlikely, the dragons where a peaceful race, that only went to war, when attacked. Suddenly something sparked inside of Nules head. The dragons had been attacked by a human.

"Are you absolutely sure, this dragon was killed by a human?" there was real fear in her voice.

"We are no experts on human weapons, but the moles pulled out a small piece of metal, that had lodged itself inside the victim's chest, and before we found the body, there was a loud BANG!" clarified Terrador, which caused Lydia to jump.

"I assure you, I did not know about this,"

"That much is clear, but they are your people, and therefore your reasonability, we guardians cannot have your people killing our people for no reason," the anger that Terrador showed was too much for Lydia to bear, she started to back away, fearful of the dragon in front of her. Terrador showed no signs of being ready to attack, yet Lydia still was afraid of Terrador.

"HEY!" yelled someone from behind Nule, both Terrador, and Lydia turned only to see the back of Nules head as he turned to see a guard running towards him.

Without thinking Nule ran up the side of the house, and grabbed onto a ledge. Nule quickly pulled himself up and began to climb the building. More shouts from below told Nule that the guards had spotted him, and were getting ready to attack.

Nule pulled himself over the top of the house just as an arrow flew past his head. Nule looked over the edge to see two archers, and one guard trying to climb up the house. Nule quickly turned and ran to the front of the house, without thinking Nule ran and jumped off of the roof. Time seemed to have slowed down as Nule flew through the air. It seemed like Nule was in the air for at least a minute. Nule finally hit the ground, and rolled to lessen the impact.

Nule looked back and saw that he had jumped at least twenty feet, but Nule did not have time to wonder what had happened, as the guards had run around the building and were running at him. Nule quickly turned and ran from the guards.

Time seemed to slow down just a notch or two, and Nule found that he was running past people fairly fast, the people were a blur as he moved in and out of the crowd. Nule kept up his running for awhile, until he was sure that no one had followed him. Nule then began to walk to Ryu's shop where he made and sold swords.

**00000**

**So theirs that, have fun.**


	7. Something Strange is Happening

Something Strange is Happening

Nule had ditched the guards fairly easily, for some reason he had gotten much faster than should have been possible. _"Adrenaline"_ thought Nule. _"Just pure adrenaline"_ it made sense to him, with adrenaline pumping through his veins Nule could become stronger, and faster, anyone could, it was just a matter of one's mental stare.

Nule had stopped off at his house, and changed his cloths as quickly as possible, yet while he exited his house and started out for the forge at a steady pace, Nule could not help but wonder who had killed that dragon. It wasn't an accident, no one carried around a loaded gun anymore, it was strictly against the law to even own a gun anymore, all of the human race, were under the command of Lydia now.

Lydia was a strict law enforcer, and Nule understood why. If the human population was allowed to do whatever it wanted at a time like this, then the dragons would want to get rid of them, they wouldn't care who was innocent and who was guilty, so long as they got their peace back they wouldn't care, that much was clear from the way Terrador had acted towards Lydia.

Nule arrived at Ryu's forge in a matter of minutes, the forge, was really a small shop with a large backyard, where the forge was. The walls of the shop were lined with different swords, arrow tips, and armor. The backyard however was mostly empty except for The various tools and stations used to forge weapons, such as the forge itself and the hammers and tongs used for grasping metal that was too hot for a gloved hand.

Checking the sun, Nule determined that he could not be that late for work, and went inside. Instantly he was greeted by the sight of Ryu. Ryu was a Japanese man who had crafted swords, for training dojos back on earth. He was about fifty going on sixty, and had short black hair, with grey streaks lining the sides of his head. Ryu always liked to comb his hair backwards, saying it made him look nice. Ryu had multiply burns, on and around his hands, face, and neck, all from past experiences with the forge, which he dedicated his life to.

"Morning Ryu" said Nule as he walked to the back of the store, and out the back door into the backyard.

Ryu just nodded as Nule passed him. In the back yard, Nule began to stroke the fire in the forge, which was always lit. As he stroked the fire, Nule began to think about the dead dragon._"Why would someone kill a dragon?"_ Nule asked himself, before mentally slapping himself. That was an easy one; humans always killed something that scared them. But there had to be another reason, something that made sense, other than a senseless killing.

Nule couldn't help but feel sad for the dragon, before he had come to the dragon realms, he had always dreamed about meeting a dragon, when he was younger, honestly Nule was happy that he was here, earth was such a violent place, full of technology that slowly killed off the planet. It kind of felt like Nule had been given a second chance, but right now he felt useless, all he was doing was making weapons that would kill people. That's what struck Nule as odd, the humans had never really been in too much danger, which would require weapons, and maybe it was just their need for something dangerous, which caused them to want something sharp.

At this point Nule wasn't paying attention to what he was doing, and it was only because of a very hot burning sensation which began in his hands, that caused him to return to the world of the observant. Nule jumped back from the fire, with a shout of surprise and pain. Nule examined his hands to find them a bright angry red color. His hands were in pain.

Ryu had heard Nules yell, and came quickly. Ryu saw Nules hands, and quickly took them in his own, and examined the flesh.

"What did you do, stick your hands in the fire?" asked Ryu visibly shocked

"I might as well have, Ryu I'm sorry, I wasn't paying attention to the fire, I ended up burning myself," replied Nule, as he tried desperately not to move his fingers.

"You must have been thinking hard to have burnt yourself; you're always so focused on the task at hand. So what was it that distracted you?" Ryu never sounded judging, but his tone, suggested that he actually cared for Nules well being.

"Well…" Nule wanted to tell Ryu the truth, but this was not something that the public should know about, Nule just wanted to get it off of his chest, and let someone else know, he wanted someone to share his fears, just once, he wanted to know that he was not the only one who cared about the dragons. As hard as Nule reasoned, he could not find a good reason to tell Ryu the truth, this was something he would have to keep to himself, at least until he knew more about what was going on. "It's this girl, I really like her, and well, I can't keep her off my mind," it was a terrible lie, and Nule knew it, Nule had no interest in girls. He wasn't gay, as far as he knew, he liked girls, but he had never been with a girl, at least not one he actually loved.

For a moment Nule had thought that Ryu didn't believe him, Ryu had this face he made, when he was searching for a lair, it was blank, but his eyes would scan over the other persons face, looking for a giveaway, something that would tell him that the person he was looking at, was telling him a bald face lie. Finally Ryu smiled and patted Nule on the back, his eyes showing kindness and understanding.

"The forge is no place to let your mind wonder, especially on a girl, and now you know why. Let's make a deal, when you come to the forge, you leave all other thoughts out of your head, if it doesn't involve metal crafting, then it's a distraction, if you can do that, then I can promise you, you won't get hurt too often. Deal?" even his words were kind, that was what Nule liked about Ryu, he never got angry over the little things, always kind hearted, and understanding.

Nule nodded, as guilt washed over him. Ryu led Nule over to the trough and told him to soak his hands in the cold water. Nule did as he was asked, and found that despite a slight sting, his hands did feel better.

Ryu had given Nule the next week off, due to his injury, and had given him a few gold coins- Humans had to convert to the dragon's currency, since paper money was useless- and told him to go buy some burn ointment. Nule was now walking down the streets of Donum Dracones, he had just finished counting the coins- six gold ounces- and was about to put them in his pocket, when someone ran by him, and snatched the coins out of his hands.

It took Nule a second to process what had just happened. Nule immediately took off like a rocket, as he chased down the thief. The thief was fast, and appeared to be very agile, as he dodged past people who had moved in his way. Nule was equally just as fast, and just as agile, He dodged left and right always on the thief's heels.

Suddenly the thief took a turn and ran up the side of a building, before climbing towards the roof. Nule suddenly jumped, and grabbed onto the wall, a quick look down told Nule that he had jumped at least ten feet. Nule quickly climbed onto the roof, and gave chase to the thief again.

The thief made a big mistake, climbing onto the rooftops, up there; there were no people to get in Nules way. The thief looked back only to see Nule reach out his hand and grab the thief by the back of his shirt, suddenly pulling down the thief slammed down hard onto the stone roof and gasped for air. Nules hands which was already starting to form blisters, stung from the sudden movement, but Nule ignored it.

Nule stood over the thief, and saw that he was only a kid, about seventeen or eighteen years old. Nule pushed that from his mind, and reached into the kids pocket and pulled out six gold coins, before walking off.

"You're the first one to have caught me!" gasped the boy. Nule continued to walk to the edge of the roof, ready to climb down.

"Your faster than most people, stronger to, and pretty soon you're going to be able to do all sorts of things other people can't do!" called the boy Nule stopped in his tracks for a moment, how had the boy known he was faster than he used to be, and was he right about being stronger, before he could never make someone gasp for breath, simply buy pulling them down, and then there was this strange feeling, being around this kid, it made him feel…powerful, the kid felt like a friend, that Nule could trust, but why, why did this kid feel like a friend, when Nule had never had friends.

Nule would have turned around and asked these questions, but a shot of pain raced through his hands again, and he climbed down the side of the building.

00000

Nule had just exited a healing house –as the dragons would have called it- with a small wooden jar of ointment for burns and some bandages. With the jar in hand, Nule had decided to spend his day relaxing. He had been in the dragon realms for five years, three of which he had spent working for the military and two which had been spent learning how to craft metal. Ryu always gave Nule days off, but he had spent those days working out.

Nule had been around Donum Dracones many times, and knew where most places were. Nule had decided to go to the park, which he had not been to before, sure he knew where it was, but not what it looked like. It took Nule only five minutes to walk to the park.

The park was more like a forest really. There was a fence which, separated, the park from the city. The park was nothing more than an area filled with trees and a couple of ponds, each filled with crystal clear water, that the dragons had assured the humans was clean to drink.

Nule made his way into the park; he liked the quit that seemed to emanate from the trees. It was peaceful here, and shady. The trees where close enough together to block out some of the sky, but not so close to the point that navigating through them was hard. Nule walked for two or three minutes, before he rested his back and head against a large oak tree.

After Nule gently applied the ointment to his hands, he wrapped his hands in the bandages and laid them on his lap. Nule laid his head against the oak tree and drifted off to sleep.

Nule awoke to the sudden sound of snapping. It was so distinct that Nule instantly knew someone was walking nearby. Nule lifted his head and looked around, but saw no one nearby. Nule slowly stood up and searched around. He could distinctly hear someone walking to his left, but it sounded faint. Nule began to walk in that direction.

Nule walked for fifteen minutes before he saw someone. There just twenty yards away was a girl crouched to the ground; she appeared to be holding something in her hands. Nule went to go talk to her, but as soon as he stepped forward a twigged snapped under his foot. The girl suddenly looked up.

"Is someone there?" Nule heard her whisper, yet strangely it sounded as if she was right next to him. Nule suddenly remembered what that thief boy had said. _"Your faster than most people, stronger to, and pretty soon you're going to be able to do all sorts of things other people can't do,"_those words rang in Nules ears, and Nule suddenly had the feeling that the girl would hear him.

"Yes, I'm here," he whispered hoping she would hear him. A look of surprise appeared on her face, as her eyes locked onto the spot where Nule was standing. Very slowly Nule walked out into the open, and a look of surprise came over her face.

The girl wanted to stand up and leave, for fear that Nule would do something, but something stopped her, something about Nule gave off a friendly vibe, which made her feel safe around him. Nule slowly walked over to her, and just caught a glimpse, of what she was holding, it was a little gem that glowed a light purple color. Nule had seen many things that glowed in faint light, but there was something about that little gem. Nule felt a strange sensation, in his body.

Nule looked the Girl over. She looked to be about eighteen or nineteen; she had brown hair, and hazel eyes. She looked Latino, and had a slim figure, of course Nule wasn't interested in that sort of thing, he never went for beautiful girls, he preferred the ones who had a good personality.

"I'm Sarah," Said the Girl suddenly. Nule was caught off guard, and almost forgot his manners.

"I'm Nule," he replied, a little awkwardly.

Sarah stood up and held out her hand, which Nule shook, out of politeness. Sarah was a nice and open person, who liked to talk. Nule and Sarah talked for awhile, and Sarah, had explained that she had found the purple gem, after she saw a flash of brilliant light, when she had followed it, the gem was lying on the ground. She explained that when she had picked up the gem, she felt strange, and then her hearing had suddenly gotten better, which was when she had heard Nule.

Nule was not willing to believe her, after all it was so farfetched that it couldn't be true, but something about the girl screamed you can trust me, and then there was the fact that they lived in a world of magic, suddenly Sarah's story didn't sound so farfetched anymore, in fact when Nule actually thought about it, it sounded quite sane.

"Would you mind if I held it for a second?" Nule asked. He had the sudden urge to feel it, to study it with his fingers.

Sarah nodded, and held out her hand, Nule slowly grabbed it. As soon as his fingers closed around the small gem, an instant surge went through his body. Nule felt little surges of electricity spreading from the gem, and into his body, one nerve at a time, causing a pleasant, yet annoying sensation. The feeling changed and it suddenly felt, like something was being pushed inside of Nules chest, at first it was more like a weight on his chest, but then it felt like a ball of fire, was light behind his breast bone, ye it was not hot, instead it was a warm sensation that spread through his body.

After a minute or two, the sensation faded, and Nule was left looking dumbfounded. He stared from the Gem to Sarah, and back again, wondering if that had just happened. One last look at Sarah, gave Nule the information he wanted. There was a large knowing grin on her face that told Nule, that she had experienced the same thing.

Nule quickly stood up and brushed the dirt, off of his pants.

"Thank you for the conversation, it was very uh… eye opening." Said Nule as he turned around and left the park.

It had gotten dark, since Nule had entered the park, and the light was quickly fading. Nule made it home just as the last ray of light vanished over the horizon. Nules house was a single story building, complete with two bedrooms, and a bathroom. The "toilet was almost like the ones on earth, they were wooden, and had a tank on the back of them that somehow filled with water, when flushed. Nule didn't know how the plumbing worked exactly, but he did know that there were clay pipes, that distributed water, and –to a greater extent,- waste, through the city, where it was, -as the dragons put it,- magically purified, into fresh drinking water.

Nule went to his bedroom. His room was small only holding a small dresser, and a single person bed, in which he slept on. His bed had animal furs for blankets, which Nule regularly used.

Nule sat on the edge of his bed, and slowly removed his bandages. The pain in his hands had died away awhile ago, and Nule could see why, his hands which had previously been badly burned and blasted, now looked normal, except for a little red in his palms.

"_This is seriously getting weird,"_ thought Nule. Nule lay in bed and covered up. His mind still wondered over the strange gem. _"What was that weird feeling?"_and what about that guy, and girl, something really messed up was going on and Nule needed to find out what it was. Nule was up for a couple more minutes before he finally fell asleep

00000

Nule found he was in a dimly lit circular room, along the wall was a book shelf filled with books of different sizes and color. Along the shelves where little runes, that produced a little blue glow that filled the room, in the center of the room was a large hourglass, with blue sand, that also glowed.

"Where am I?" Nule asked out loud. It was such a cliché line, but Nule honestly wanted to know, and for some reason he could not help but to ask.

"You, young one are at the white isle, or at least your spirit is," said a voice from behind Nule.

Nule turned around to see a teal blue dragon wearing a blue cape like cloth around his neck which ended at the base of his tail; the collar was lined with gold thread, and had symbols on it as well. The dragon had silver, blue horns, and claws, the dragon however had fire red eyes. The dragon didn't show any signs of aggression towards Nule, which caused Nule to relax.

"Where is the White Isle, and why am I here?" Nule asked, not sure if this was a dream or not.

"The White Isles is not a physical place one can visit, it is a spiritually place, as for why you are here, I have called you here, which I might add is no easy task, to tell you that the ancestors have chosen you and two others to stop a war, that is quickly on its way,"

"Wait, a war with whom?" Nule was scared now; his fears had been realized there was going to be a war.

"Between humans and dragons," Nules heart dropped out of his chest, which must have shown on his face, because the dragon began to talk again. "But you can stop it, hopefully before it even begins, as I have said, the ancestors have chosen you and two others to help us in our time of need." Fear sprang up inside of Nule, how was he going to stop a war.

"Why do I have to do it?" Nule didn't mean to sound like a little whiny brat, but he was honestly scared, he had never fought in a war, all he had ever done, was help the human race survive, and even then he hadn't done very much.

"You show clear signs of being a good leader. You are determined, loyal, you do whatever you can to keep the ones you love safe, and you have a thirst for knowledge, even if it is something that you are not meant to hear," Nule could not help but hang his head at that comment.

"And you show humility," continued the dragon. "I can understand how you feel right now; I remember when Spyro first doubted his abilities as the purple dragon, and now look at him, the savior of the dragon realms." Nule had so many questions, one of which was, who was Spyro, and who where the other two people that would help him stop a war. Nule sighed; he defiantly needed to know more about this world if he wanted to survive here.

"Fine I'll do it, but I need some help, first off, who are these other two that are supposed to help me?"

"The first is a boy, you have already met him I believe, he took your money."

"Wait that thief?" Nule asked, genuinely surprised. "How can a thief help save the world?"

"He has his own characteristics which the ancestors believe useful to you, as for the second person, I believe Sarah was her name." Nule clearly remembered both of them.

"How do I know this isn't a dream?" Suspicion crept into Nules voice, as the possibility seemed highly likely.

"When you wake up, look at your left palm, there you will see the ancient symbol for the fire guardian," Replied the dragon.

"I have one more question," said Nule.

"Go ahead then,"

"Who are you?" The dragon smiled.

"I am Ignitus, the chronicler"

Suddenly the room began to fade away, and Nule awoke from his dream. Nule sat up in bed, confusion evident on his face, and then Nule quickly remember what had happened. Reluctantly Nule looked at his left palm, and saw there in the middle of his hand, a little red flame symbol, stuck to his hand like a tattoo. Suddenly the flame faded. Nule sat dumbfounded for a minute or two, before he threw the covers off of himself, and got dressed. In a matter of five minutes Nule was out the door.


	8. New Heros arrive

New Heroes Arrive

Nule was at the park in a matter of minutes. Once there, Nule began to search the forest, it was only by chance that Nule had found the same place from yesterday. No one was around, Nule sighed in frustration. How was he supposed to stop a war, he couldn't even find two people. Nule walked to the place he had sat yesterday, and just sat on the ground. Suddenly Sarah faded into existence, causing Nule to jump up in surprise, suddenly he saw himself fade into existence as well. The two specters were talking. Suddenly the specter Nule reached out his hand and took something from the specter Sarah, Nule immediately realized what he was seeing. It was the scene from yesterday.

Nule watched as the Specter Nule's face turned dumbfounded. The two specters talked for a few seconds, before Nule stood up and walked away, Nule wanted to follow, but quickly remember, that he had already known what he was going to do. Nule waited for Sarah to move, but all she did was climb into a tree. Nule looked up and saw that the real Sarah was now lying in the tree watching Nule with inquisitive eyes.

"Did he visit you in your dreams as well last night?" Sarah asked as she jumped down from the tree.

"You mean Ignitus?" replied Nule.

"Yep, he seems nice,"

"What did he tell you last night?" continued Nule

'Just that there was a war coming and I could help stop it, he also said something about going to Warfang and checking out the dead dragon," Nule nodded, it made sense to check out the victim, to try and discover any leads that might help them find the killer.

"That makes sense, but first we have to find someone else, before we go to Warfang," said Nule vexation clear in his voice.

"Do you mean Sven?" Sarah asked. Nule looked at her, clearly he was confused by her statement, "The thief?" she supplied.

Nule nodded, he was about to ask how she knew his name, but thought he already knew, it was probably Ignitus, who had told her.

With that the two left the park, and headed for the streets, Nule was unsure of how he had managed to see yesterday again, but he did not dwell on it for long, it was a valuable ability and he would use it to find this Sven kid as well. The two walked down the street keeping quite. Sarah suddenly broke the silence.

"So how old are you?"

"What? Oh, um twenty one…You?"

"Eighteen," she replied a grin on her face.

Nule looked around; he didn't know where he had run off to. All he remembered was where he had started to chase Sven. Nule stopped as an idea popped into his head. Nule quickly cleared his mind and thought about yesterday when he chased the thief. Suddenly the early morning street which was usually empty was now filled with specters. Nule was slightly caught off guard, but he found that he was strangely getting used to it.

Suddenly two specters rushed past dodging, the others. Nule waved to Sarah, as he took off after them. Nule was so caught up in the chase that he found himself dodging the crowd as well. It was not until he accidentally ran through a specter that he realized; they were only fragments of the past left over for a short time.

Nule followed the specters closely, it was only when they ran up the side of a building that Nule recognized where they were. Nule followed them onto the roof, there he watched himself slam the thief named Sven. Nule watched as they talked for a moment, before Nule's specter jumped off of the roof.

"What are you doing?" Sarah asked. Nule looked back only to see Sarah looking at him, confusion evident on her face.

"You mean you can't see them?" Nule asked back. Sarah looked around as she turned from confused to frighten. "Yesterday I chased down, that thief, this is where I stopped him, and got my money back, for some reason I can see everything that happened yesterday, that's how I found you again, "explained Nule.

"That's a little hard to believe, don't you think?"

"So are dragons, and dreaming about the same dragon, and yet they are real," Nule was satisfied with himself, yet he resisted the urge to smile. Sarah nodded; he had a very good point.

Nule turned around to see that the Sven specter had walked off a good distance from them, Nule quickly ran after him, and followed him. The specter ended up leaping off of the building tops and making his way through the street. The specter dodged past people and occasionally swiped someone's coin purse.

The specter continued through the streets, until he suddenly took a turn into a dark ally. Nule quickly followed, and saw that at the end of the ally was what looked like a forgotten building. This building was crammed in between two buildings. The building in the middle looked poorly constructed and looked as if someone had decided to abandon it while in mid construction.

The specter walked up to the door and knocked; Nule got closer. Nule could not hear what was being said, but after a short pause Sven walked through the door. Nule moved forward, and raised his hand to knock, on the door, but stopped, what would happen if they knew he was not a thief, how would he get inside, and what if he did get inside and Sven wasn't there, he would have wasted his time in trying to find Sven

Nule shook his head, and cleared his thoughts, there was no way worrying about it, it wouldn't help solve his current problem, he had to act, and maybe improvise, if he had to, maybe there was no correct answer, maybe he could somehow fool them.

Nule sighed and hesitantly knocked on the door. Immediately a slot on the door opened and a pair of pale eyes stared back at him.

"What is always increasing, but never decreasing?"

Nule thought for a moment, he thought of all the things that increased, like temperature, or cloud density, he even thought about saying numbers, but all of these things had a downside, you could count numbers backwards, the temperature could always drop, and cloud density, depended on amount of moister in the air, he even thought to take on a humorous approach. Nule breathed in slowly and spoke, he was not sure if he was right, but he was going to go out on a limb and try it.

"A homeless person's debt?" Nule asked hopefully.

"Incorrect," said the man as he slammed the slot's door closed. Nule was dejected; he knew he shouldn't have said that. There was no way it could have been something like that, in fact he felt kind of ashamed now that he realized what he had said.

Nule pushed these thoughts from his head and knocked on the door again. Once more the slot opened to reveal a pair of pale eyes. The eyes took one look at Nule, before the slot shut again. Nule knocked again, and once more the slot opened.

"Listen you little shit, you can leave now, or I can beat the hell out of you, now go before you piss me off," said the voice, his words leaking with venom.

The slot closed again. Nule was insulted. Whoever was behind that door was being very rude, and one of the things he hated was rude people. Nule wanted to leave, but the door caught his eye. Nule took a closer look at the door, and saw that it was made of some flimsy wood. There were large cracks running up the side of the door. Suddenly Nule had an idea.

Nule once again knocked on the door, but quickly moved out of the way, of the slots view. The slot opened and once again the pale eyes looked through. They quickly searched for someone but the ally looked pretty deserted. Suddenly Nule moved into mans line of sight, but before he could react, Nule quickly raised his right foot and slammed the sol of his foot against the door.

The distinct sound of splitting wood rang out in the ally, but Nule had kicked the door harder than he had thought himself capable of, and his foot continued to move forward as the door shattered. Nule distinctly felt, the wood under his foot, hit something solid, and sending it flying backwards.

Nule could hear, Sarah in the back squeal with fright at the sudden noise, and the man grunt in pain as the air was knocked from his lungs, and the sound of wooden chairs scraping against the stone floor. The inside of the building was relatively dark; the only source of light came from dimly lit candles hanging from the walls, and from the opened doorway. Nule looked and saw at least seven people in the current room, they had all piled around a large table with gold coins scattered acrossed the top, along with little trinkets, like watches, rings, and necklaces.

The seven people, who had stood up from the table, were all males, ranging in age from about sixteen to at least fifty, and each had a weapon in his hand. Some held whips, while others held small daggers and broken bottles.

"What the hell is this?" called a man with a whip, he looked to be in his mid twenties, and had blonde hair, which was neatly combed backwards. His cloths were somewhat nice, but were covered in dirt, and dust.

"You're gonna pay for that door, you little shit," called another man in his late forties. He unlike his company had dark brown hair, which was a mess, and torn clothing.

"I'm looking for a thief named Sven, just point me in his direction and I'll leave right now," said Nule, even as he said it he suspected they would not tell him anything, and they were never going to let him leave, without a fight. While Nule had been trained as a military fighting machine, he was unsure of the odds. It was seven men, against just him, and they had weapons.

When Nule had first processed the fact that these men had weapons, he was sizing them up, if he could just get one of their weapons he might be able to fight the rest off, long enough to get the information he needed. Nule saw that there were three men who had daggers. If he could just get one of them to attack him on his own, he could easily overpower him and take his dagger, as his own.

"Well look what we have here, a little boy who thinks he's calling the shots. You know what you are kid, you're a punk," said one of the men with the dagger. Nule smirked for a second, but it was unseen by the men thanks to the light which was at his back.

"I bet I could take you down in an instant," he said, pointing at the man with the dagger.

The other men laughed, but the man with the dagger just went pale, before he raised the dagger, and ran at Nule trying to stab him. Nule had been expecting this as well as hoping for it. As the man brought the knife down, Nule quickly side stepped, his unnatural speed surprising him yet again.

Nule did not allow his emotions to show or hinder his actions, as his hand shot up and grabbed the man's wrist. Nule squeezed trying to get him to let go, but he would not, so Nule tried something else. Nule brought his other hand down on his arm. The knife fell from the man's hand, as a sickening crack filled the room shortly followed by the man's scream of pain. Nule quickly discarded the man with a jerk of his hand, and caught the knife in mid air, before quickly standing up into a defensive stance, the blade reversed in his grip.

Nule was instantly annoyed. The blade in his hand was uneven, there was more weight, in the hilt, which caused the blade to feel wrong in his hands, not only that, but the blade seemed to be poorly crafted. The blade was to thin, and wasn't very sharp, a good blow and the blade could easily snap.

The man's companions expressed their outrage at their friend's treatment, with shouts and threats, of mutilation and death. Nule quickly looked over them and assessed the situation. Six men stood before him, three with broken bottles, two with daggers, and a single man with a whip in his hand.

One of the men with a dagger ran at Nule, but this man, unlike his companion, had more sense. Before he reached Nule he stopped, in his tracks, and stood a ways off, the dagger ready in his hands. Nule didn't wait for the man to make a move. He suddenly ran the rest of the way to the man taking him by surprise.

Nule used the man's moment of hesitation, to stop a foot away and suddenly swing his foot out catching the man on the side of the head. The man's head snapped in the other direction, and he fell to the ground, clutching his head in pain. Nule turned only to be hit in the chest with something heavy, which momentarily caught him off guard, but did not injure him. Nule looked to the ground and saw that a dagger lay at his feet. The last man with the dagger had thrown it at him hoping the blade would stick in his chest, but the blade, much like the one in his hand and probably the one the second man had, was uneven, causing its flight pattern to be unpredictable.

Nule looked at the man furious, he could have died, just then, but thanks to whoever had crafted the thieves' weapons, he had gotten very lucky. Nule ignored the man for the moment, as he was no longer a threat; he instead focused on the last four men.

The men realizing they were losing had decided to try something else. The quickly began to circle Nule, until one was in front of him, on behind him, and one on his left and right. Nule was not put off by this, the only thing that worried him, was if they all decided to attack at the same time; he could end up getting wounded.

Luckily the four men were too angry to think of a good strategy, they simply thought, if he could not see them then he could easily be beaten. Nule watched as the man in front of him nodded. Suddenly Nule could hear the sound of something breaking the air, and Nule quickly ducked as a bottle flew over him and hit the man in the chest, lodging shards of glass in his chest. Nule however quickly turned on the spot, and threw his own knife.

It was a long shot, but Nule tried to counter the weight in the hilt, by releasing the knife a little earlier than he normally would have. Nule did not waste time on watching to see if he had hit his mark, and he quickly snatched up the knife, that had hit him in the chest, and threw it as well, this time at the guy to his left, again trying to counter act the uneven weight distribution.

A moment later Nule heard two separate screams of pain, but Nule ignored them, he quickly turned his attention on the last man standing to his right. The man had a whip, but looked slightly reluctant to use it. Nule slowly walked towards the man, hoping his reluctance to use his weapon would stay with him just long enough.

Nule had just walked into the man's range, when he suddenly cracked the whip at Nule. Nule, however, found that his speed came back, and he quickly sidestepped. Suddenly his arm shot out and he moved it upward quickly causing the whip to suddenly wrap around his arm. The tip of the whip cracked on his bare skin causing it to sting, but Nule didn't feel it, there was to much adrenaline in his veins for him to feel anything.

Nule quickly twisted his arm and grabbed hold of the whip with his hand and jerked forward, before the man could let go.

Nule quickly grabbed onto the man's shirt and cocked his fist back, barley aware, of the yells, grunts and whimpers of pain, from the fallen men.

"Where is Sven?" Nule asked in a frighteningly calm voice, which surprised even him.

Nule was dimly aware of the changes in his personality. Ever since Nule had been trained by the military, he never took crap from anyone, and he was all too often, found yelling at a customer, who had insulted Nule or Ryu; even then, he had been in trouble with the local guards, for beating up someone, for trivial things, such as insulting him, threatening him, or mocking him, however he found that right now at this moment, he was able to resist the urge.

Any other time, he would have beaten the crap out of the person first, and then ask his questions, but for some strange reason he didn't want to punch the man in front of him. The guy he now looked at with a serious face, looked to be the youngest of the group, and it was very clear that he was scared.

"I'm right here, now put him down." Said a voice from behind him.

Nule turned around to see that the thief boy Sven had come from a room to the side. Nule looked at the boy in his hand and his scared expression, before letting go of him.

"Alex, help Derrick get the others to our medic," said Sven looking at the boy Nule had just let go of.

The boy quickly took off, and Nule watched as he help the man who had thrown the dagger at him, pick up his fallen friends. Nule took a quick look around and saw the two he had thrown the daggers at, he had been aiming for the their left side, hoping to hit them in the chest, away from their hearts, but found his aim was off and instead had hit one in the leg, while the other had the dagger stuck in his upper forearm. Nule however did not complain, it had worked in his favor, and at least he hadn't killed anyone.

Nule turned back to Sven, who looked at him furiously.

"I knew you'd come," he simply said his anger evident in his voice.

"We need to talk about some very important things," Nule replied, still keeping his voice calm. Suddenly he found that all his emotions had left his body, he could not feel a single thing. Not anger, or joy, not pain, or regret, and most certainly not guilt. He was left standing, an empty shell.

"I already know, Ignitus, has already informed me," Sven lifted his hand to show a mark, which glowed a pale blue color. Nule immediately recognized it, it had been the symbol on the banner that had hung over Cyril, when Nule had first met the dragons with John.


	9. THe comming War

The Coming War

"You're going to pay for that door you busted down," Sven said, Now that they had some peace and quiet.

Nule had brought both Sven and Sarah to Ryu's shop. He could not trust the thief in his own home. He didn't take care to hide his money, there was no need, seeing as he lived alone, and never had visitors. He had only brought them to the forge, because there was less valuable objects to steel, besides weapons, but Nule did not worry about Sven taking them. The weapons were never kept out on display, at least not the real ones.

Ryu had theft problems in the past, so now he had all the weapons stored in a back room, which he had paid a Mole to seal with magic, the door was only able to be opened with the touch of a specific person, and Ryu was the only one who could open the door. All the weapons that were on the walls now, were crude imitations of the real thing.

They were filled with imperfections, some were to thin, others had large cracks running through them, but they were expertly hidden. In short these weapons would never hold up in a real battle, and if they were used, they could end up costing a man or women their life.

Nule had brought them to a small room, which was situated behind the counter where Ryu sold weapons. Ryu had given the room to Nule so he could study, the art of Sword crafting. He would spend hours in this room pouring over the books, he had been given, as he read, and reread what was in them, so as to make sure he had not missed anything in them.

"We have more important things, to discuss, besides the door I broke down," commented Nule as he cleared a space on a table that sat in the back of the room.

Nule sat down in the chair, and leaned forward, as he turned his gaze to Sarah.

"Sarah I think you should let Sven touch the gem you found the other day," said Nule his gaze sharp. Nule noticed her discomfort, but Nule's gaze was strong and she unwillingly pulled the small gem out of her pocket, and sat it on the table.

As always the gem gave off a faint purple glow. Sven's mouth fell open in a large o shape, as he stared at the gem. Nule saw his eyes sparkly in the faint candle light, as he tried to figure out how much the gem might cost. Slowly Sven reached out and picked up the gem and curled his fingers around it. Instantly his face took on a look of wonder, as he no doubt was feeling exactly as Nule had felt when he had first touched the gem.

Sven was motionless for a minute or two, but when at last the sensation had left his body, Sven tentatively put the gem back onto the table top. Sarah wasted no time in snatching the gem off of the table and shoving it back into her pants pocket. Sven stared at the spot where the gem had been too long for it to be mild curiosity, but a second behind it being obsession. When he did turn his gaze back at Nule there was a strange expression on his face. It was a mix of excitement, and joy, with something else that lurked in the back of his eyes, perhaps it was greed, but it was hard to tell, as Sven quickly changed facial expressions. He now held what looked like boredom.

"So what are you going to do?" asked Sven trying to sound bored and uninterested in the subject at hand.

"I was told to get you and Sarah, to help me, so the question you should have asked, is what we are going to do," replied Nule his voice strangely distant in a way.

"I never agreed to help anyone stop a war. Why should I help anyone?" It was clear to Nule that Sven was milking the situation, trying to get something good out of it.

"Fine, if that's the way you're going to play it, I'm game, what do you want?" asked Nule annoyance in his voice.

In truth Nule could force Sven to help him, he could easily overpower him, but violence wouldn't help the situation. Nule knew Sven's type. Sven was the kind of person who as greedy. He was after the bigger picture, which is probably what made him a good thief, if he could steal from someone and not feel sorry for it. He would not lose any sleep over it, or be reluctant to steal again. This kid probably became a thief because of his lust for material possessions. Nule knew that if he forced Sven to help him, he would be a very unwilling ally, and Nule could not afford someone like that watching his back. It was better to just give him what he wanted; hopefully he would have a sense of honor, and not bail whenever something got hard.

Sven, as well as Sarah was surprised, Sven had not expected Nule to be so compliant, and Sarah was surprised because she had thought Nule was a more forceful person. Nule had come off as a person who hated to be challenged, for any reason. In truth she was right, Nule hated to be challenged. Not challenged like asked to see who was a better fighter, but to have his authority challenged. In truth Nule had absolutely no idea, what was happening to him. His entire personality was quickly changing causing him to question whether or not he was alright. He began to question if he was mentally sane anymore, and whether or not he should be locked up.

"What can you give me?" Sven asked dumbfounded. It took him a moment to realize what he had said, but once he did he mentally cured himself, he had given his victim a chance to determine his pay.

Nule smiled, he knew what he could do, and it would only cost him a month's pay, but Nule didn't mind, he only spent his money on things he needed, like food, or furniture, and sometimes cloths when his were burnt.

"Tell you what, how about I make you an entire set of weapons, free of charge. I have been working here for a few years, and picked up the forge masters trade, with ease," Nule had knowing smile on his face, as he saw the look of excitement flash through Svens eyes for a moment before it quickly vanished to be replaced by mock boredom.

"Are you a certified blacksmith?" he asked rather coldly. The smile faded from Nules face to be replaced by a cool frown.

Nule had been insulted, from a thief of all the people in this city.

"I need only work here for a few more years, before my forge master gives me the title of blacksmith. I am as skilled as he is, and insulting me and my work is insulting him and his work." Nule replied as a small growl underlined his voice.

Sven visibly backed up a few feet, at the sudden firmness in Nules voice. Suddenly the door to the room opened, as Ryu stepped inside. Nule instantly looked up to see his boss. Instantly all traces of hostility faded from his face, as took on a more respectful expression.

"Nule? I thought I heard voices coming from inside here. What are these two people doing here?" Ryu asked, his face showing clear signs of confusion, and suspicion.

"Ryu these are my…friends" Nule said quickly as he tried to find a better lie.

Suddenly Sven outstretched his hand, towards Ryu, who shook hands with him. Nule was suspicious of Sven at the moment. Could he possibly be up to something? When Ryu released Sven's hand, he quickly looked at his own hand, and smiled.

"Your friend here has quick hands," said Ryu a little laugh in his voice. Suddenly Ryu held his hand out palm upward.

Sven only smiled as he lifted the hand he had shaken Ryu's hand with and pulled off a gold band from around his ring finger, and placed it in Ryu's upturned hand Nule was mortified by what he had just witnessed. Sven had just openly stolen Ryu's wedding ring.

Ryu was no longer married as his wife, and son had died in the old world, as it was commonly referred to by most humans, but Ryu still like to wear it, and never seemed to take it off. Nule was finding his situation more and more nerve wracking, he had to unauthorized people behind the counter, had just admitted to trying to work on the forge, without Ryu's permission, and now Sven was making it appear as if he spent his time in the company of common thieves.

"Nice to meet you sir, my name is Sven, and this is Sarah," Sven had begun to talk as if he had done nothing wrong, in fact, he was acting as if he Nule and Sarah really were friends. Ryu smiled, as the suspicion seemed to have left his face to be replaced by a look of kindness.

"So these are your friends, well it is nice to meet you. Now Nule did I hear you say something about making someone a set of weapons?" There was no anger in Ryu's voice, just mild curiosity

Nule had been dreading that, he had hoped Ryu had not heard anything since the moment he walked in the room. Before Nule could answer, or think up a lie for that matter, Sven opened his mouth and began to speak.

"That's my fault, you see I asked Nule to ask you if you could make me a set of knives I could use, for defensive training, and Nule got upset because I didn't ask him to make them for me," Sven's words were as smooth as silk, and he had a natural ability to sound guilty and distressed, it was clear that he had be practicing the skill for awhile, and while Nule, and Sarah knew better than to trust his words, Ryu seemed to be softening with each word he said. "Then I asked if he was a blacksmith, and he told me that his work was just as good as yours,"

"I said that my work was much like that of your work, only because you taught me," Nule hurried to add.

"Nule while I'm glad to see you have some friends, you should ask me next time before promising to make someone weapons," Replied Ryu with what sounded like a little disappointment in his voice, which made Nule's insides twist.

Nule liked Ryu, which is more than can be said for other people. It was not so much as Nule thinking he was better than anyone, he was just not a very sociable person, which is what made Nule feel bad, he hadn't wanted to lie to Ryu in the first place, never even wanted to know about Sven, he never asked to be the one to make all the tough choices, which was one of the reasons Nule had rejected Johns promotion.

Despite Nule's guilt, he could not help but feel like the old man was hiding something from him. It was the way his eyes scanned over Nule and the room, as if looking for something to prove his suspicions right about something.

"Sorry Ryu, it won't happen again," Replied Nule defeated. He had been hoping to sneak behind Ryu's back and make the weapons as payment for Sven, but the old man was a cautious one, and would most likely take precautions' to keep the forge from being used after hours.

"_But_I suppose since you've already promised him those weapons, you should keep your promise,"

Nule suddenly looked up surprised. He had not expected Ryu to give him full reign on the forge, but then something caught in his mind. It would take him hours to make the weapons needed, and if Ryu knew about it, then he would charge Sven for the weapons, which Nule would have to pay for, as well as the materials used to make the weapons. This was beginning to get very expensive, that Nule thought his savings might not last him.

Ryu must have seen the look on Nule's face, because he smiled and spoke again.

"Just this once, you can make your friends some weapons, without charge, you can even melt down the rejected weapons to use as materials."

Nule was again surprised, but he hid it quickly. He had not expected Ryu to be a lenient man, Ryu never allowed anyone behind the counter besides him, and even more so, he never gave away weapons, this was very unlike Ryu. Nule opened his mouth to say something but Ryu quickly changed the subject, as he shifted his attention to Sarah.

"You have not spoken a single word since I entered, are you all right?" Ryu asked, concern clear in his voice.

"No, I'm f...fine, there's just n…nothing I have to s…say sir." Sarah replied, her voice quivering with each word she spoke.

Ryu nodded, and went to leave, but stopped and turned to face Nule again.

"Good luck," Ryu said as he winked at Nule, before leaving the room.

"Nice man, now when will my weapons be ready," asked Sven sounding annoyed.

"When I am able to get to them, but while you wait, you can help us. Now what all did the chronicler tell you two?"

"Well he said he didn't have a lot of time, and that there was a war coming between the humans and the dragons, but I could help stop it." Said Sarah sounding slightly worried

"Look, Sarah if you don't want to help me then I won't force you to," said Nule his voice taking on a kinder tone.

"What, that's bull, if she doesn't have to help then I don't either!" replied Sven his voice raising.

"Then you won't get your weapons, it's not too late, I haven't started crafting them yet!" said Nule raising his voice to match Sven's. "The only reason why I won't force her is because she's scared. She probably hasn't fought a day in her life, so I'm not going to put her in danger, you on the other hand are a thief, a master of being unseen, and most likely fought countless times, am I right?" asked Nule calming himself, so as not to attract Ryu again.

"No, I'll help you, if there's some way I can help stop a war, then I want to do as much as I can." Said Sarah, as she too tried to calm herself; it was obvious she was shaking with terror.

"Alright, now has the chronicler told you why we might be going to war?" It was simple enough, Nule just needed to know how much they knew and fill them in on the parts that were missing.

"Because a dragon was killed, and they think a human did it." Replied Sven dryly.

"A human did do it, the dragons found bullets lodged in the dragons chest, and head,"

Both Sven and Sarah, shouted out similar "What's'" as they suddenly realized the seriousness of the situation. The enemy now had become humans. Sven had a look of utter shock, while Sarah had a look of terror on her face.

"That would have been good to know a few minutes ago, before we agreed to help you." Sven said dryly.

"You can still leave now, but you won't get your weapons," Nule replied just as emotionless as Sven.

"If we're going up against, people with guns, don't we all need weapons?" Sarah asked treading carefully. Nule thought it over for a moment, and then nodded.

"Yea we will, here's what we're going to do. You two are going to give me a description of the weapons you want, I will try my best to draw them down, and when you're satisfied with what you see, then I will use the drawings as a reference so I know what I'm making. Sound good?" Nule asked looking at each in turn.

Sven and Sarah nodded, and better yet, Sven didn't complain that he was making Sarah weapons as well. Nule then sat down with each of them with a quill and parchment. Sarah said she simply wanted a bow, with arrow tips that looked like a plus sign, and a dagger with a flat hilt, to hid against, the underside of her arm.

Sven on the other hand, wanted two curved daggers, one curved sword, and a large supply of throwing knives, all with a black finish, and a small symbol engraved into the hilt of each weapon. The symbol looked much like a viper ready to strike.

With that done, Nule had set his quill and parchment away, telling Sven and Sarah, that they needed to go to the dragon city.

Sven looked forward to it, and Nule could see the look greed flash in his eyes, for a moment, which caused Nule to warn him of swiping any purses. Sarah on the other hand looked to be frightened. It was clear to him, that she had only seen the dragons from a distance. After all they were large beasts that could accidentally step on the smaller creatures. Nule had reassured her that she had nothing to fear from the dragons, which did seem to calm her a bit.

With that Nule led the way out of his little office, and headed for the door, when suddenly Ryu stepped inside blocking his path.

"Nule we need to talk." Ryu said, his voice sounded very serious, and desperate. Nule knew what he had to say was important, but he had something more important than anything to do with the forge.

"Sorry Ryu, but we need to do something." Nule replied a little guilt in his voice. Nule hated to push Ryu aside, he was the closest thing Nule had to a friend, and it made him feel terrible to not help him.

"Nule please this is important, you need to listen to me." Ryu's voice was getting higher, yet someone stayed under a shout. His voice was pleading with Nule.

"Ryu, please, I'm sure it can wait, till I get back." With that Nule pushed past Ryu, as did Sven and Sarah.

Nule continued to walk forward, resisting the urge, to turn around and apologize. If he turned around, he might start to question himself, and the situation at hand.

Nule took Sven and Sarah home, and quickly grabbed a fat purse of silver coins, and quickly left. It was a day's walk to Warfang, and half a day's ride, on bicycle. With his money Nule bought some supplies, and three bikes, and then quickly led his small group, to the east gate. Once outside the city, the three mounted their bikes, and began to pedal to the dragon city.

They had pedaled for nearly four hours, and had only stopped once to eat, and drink, and have a small argument, between Nule and Sven. Once they had made it to the outskirts of Warfang, they found two large dragons guarding the gate. The first was a red male dragon with a bulky frame. This dragon had maroon red scales, with a light orange underbelly. the dragon had two horns that looked like a mix between orange and yellow, the same color as his claws, and at the end of the dragons tail, were two bones that had grown out of his tail, which looked like an oddly shaped axe.

The second dragon was a blue female dragon, with a more slender frame compared to that of her companion. this was in fact the only way Nule could tell the two dragons apart, as the males, tended to be more muscular, and more fit for heavy lifting. The females of the species were more agile and flexible, as they were fit for speed. This dragon had light blue scales, with a faded yellow underbelly. She had three horns on each side of her head, all of which that slightly curved backwards. The female's horns along with her claws, had a faded blue tint to them, and her tail had what appeared to be icicles, jetting out from her tail.

The male stepped forward, and blocked Nule, and his companion's path.

"What is your business here?" asked the male dragon. It was clear he was one of the dragons that did not like humans, yet it seemed that he tolerated them to a certain degree.

"We were sent here by Lydia to speak to the guardians, over a…matter best not discussed in the open." Nule replied, hoping the other two did not give them away.

The male eyed them for a moment before speaking again.

"If you were sent here by Lydia, then why are you dressed so poorly?" The dragon asked, smirking as he thought he had caught them in a lie.

Truth be told, Nule Sven, and Sarah did look poorly dressed.

Nule was dressed in plain brown breeches, made of cotton, and a black dirty shirt also made of cotton along with a pair of combat boots, he had used when in the military. Sven was dressed in a brown trench coat, made of leather, as well as black boots, and a plain brown shirt underneath. Sarah was dressed in a white casual dress, with dirt stains, and a pair of white moccasins. The trio looked dirt poor, out of place. Nule however had thought of a good lie on his way over.

"We are dressed as Lydia has instructed to dress, her reasoning behind our appearance, is so as not to alert our two cities of any danger." It was a good, lie, but very unpredictable if things were to go wrong.

The dragon turned to look at his companion, who only shrugged her shoulders. It was clear that Nule's lie was convincing, if only because of his confidence in the lie itself. The dragon stepped aside and opened the gate. As the three walked past the threshold of the gate, he heard the female dragon tell him, that the guardians were held up in the temple, but would be busy with classes.

Once the three made a considerable amount of distance from the gate, Sven spoke up from behind him.

"Did Lydia really send us here?" Nule smiled, he could see that his lie had even fooled his companions as well as the dragon.

"No it was something I came up with to get past the gate." Nule replied trying to keep the smirk he wore out of his voice.

The inside of the dragon city, was as Nule had last remembered it, large. Everything about the city was big, the dragons were big, the buildings were big, and even the atmosphere felt big. It was starting to make Nule feel a little confident, as if he was as big as the dragons.

The inhabitants of the dragon city, were a mixture of dragons, cheetahs, and moles. It was very rare to see a human in the crowd, but they were there, some helped to run shops, others were wondering the streets. Nule was surprised to see that some of the humans would quickly move out of the way of a dragon, or cheetah that walked his or her way. It was clear, that the humans were afraid.

Nule had decided that going to the dragon temple right now would be a terrible waste of time, they would have to sit, and wait for the guardians to finish their lessons, and then they would have to hunt them down. It was better to simply explore the dragon city and wait for the classes to end, and then ask where he could find the guardians. Nule quickly turned to Sven, and Sarah.

"Alright, we have some time to kill, so we're going to explore the city, we have to meet back up here in an hour." Nule looked to see that they were standing near what looked like a restaurant, for dragons. "And no stealing, the last thing we need is to become criminals in Warfang."

With that the three went their separate ways. Nule quickly walked over to the shops that they had to see what they were selling, and if anything sparked his interest, after all he barley spent his money so why shouldn't he be allowed to spend the money he had work hard to obtain.

The first shop Nule went to was a blacksmiths forge, which dealt in selling armor for dragons of various sizes. Nule only knew it was a forge thanks to the large amount of heat that come from it, and the smell of melting metal. The dragons while they spoke a language that all humans understood, the dragons writing system consisted of strange runes that were considerably hard to decipher.

All the shops had large windows were the shopkeepers sold their goods to the folk outside. This made it relatively easier for the dragons, to purchase items, verses walking inside of the shop and potentially breaking something.

When Nule made it to the front of the line, he could see the various pieces of armor, as well as a few weapons. What Nule saw did not impress him, the armor, was poorly crafted, there were various bumps and cracks along the armor, which had been painted over to hid, Nule however saw the poor craftsmanship. These pieces would likely get someone killed if it were brought into battle.

"Are you going to stand there all day or are you going to buy something?" asked a human male from behind the counter.

"Not if these are what you have to sell, you're armor is dreadful, and your weapons unevenly crafted, these weapons are a disgrace to metal crafting." Nule replied sourly.

The man behind the counter grew agitated.

"What would you know about working a forge?" the man asked venom dripping from his words.

"I know more than you do. You've clearly covered up imperfections in the armor with expensive paint. Your weapons are off balance, way too thick, and probably not even sharp, either you're very bad at the forge, or you're a cheapskate. I bet you don't even use strong metals." Nule replied in an angry tone, it was as if the weapons and armor were making him angry.

Nule's revelations had gotten the attention of those that were around him, and those that had just bought something from the man, were clearly outraged, as they too began to wonder at the handy work of this man. Nule smiled, as he brought the fraud to light, but decided to take the man's humiliation a step further.

"If you want quality armor and weapons, go see the human Ryu, in Donum Dracones. I work under him, and he has turned out some fine pieces of work."

With that Nule walked away from the stand, and left the man to deal with his unhappy customers. With that done, Nule moved on to another shop, coincidentally he had stumbled apoun what appeared to be a book store. The building unlike the food stores was much larger, and able to fit a fully grown dragon inside.

Nule moved inside. While Nule had been training with the military, he had found a love for books. Nule was not attached to the overly complicated books that were for philosophers or any books that had to deal with overly complicated equations that had to deal with math and science, yet he was exceptionally good with math.

Nule was suddenly assaulted with the smell of old, and new paper, along with some very fresh leather polish. Nule quickly looked around and found that some of the books were new, others were extremely old, but all were leather bound. Nule moved to a shelf and examined some books. Unfortunately the titles were written in the same rune system as everything else that had to deal with dragons.

Nule sighed. It would have been nice to have something to read, he at least wanted to know more about this world, but the only way he could do that would be to learn the writing system. Nule still confused by runes on the books, took one out at random and flipped through the pages, hoping he could at least decipher one of the runes, after all he had taken code classes, when in the military.

"I see you have a taste for myths." Someone said behind him in a small voice.

Nule instantly turned around but saw no one behind him, which caused Nule to look down. There at his feet stood a mole. The mole like much of his kind was a light brown creature, that resembled a larger version of the old world's moles. This mole had a pair of glasses on his long nose, that had a small chain keeping them from falling off.

"Excuse me?" Nule asked confused.

"That book your holding, it is a book over the dragon legends and myths. It is quite a good read." The mole said.

"I wouldn't know, I can't read the text." Nule replied sheepishly. For some reason he felt embarrassed by this small fact.

"Oh that will not do. Here follow me." With that the mole walked back over to his desk. The desk was two feet off the ground, and stacked to Nule's waist with books varying in size and thickness.

Nule walked to stand in front of the desk and peered over the pile of books to see the mole shuffling through his drawers. Nule waited patiently until the mole exclaimed in excitement, as he pulled out another book, and held it out to Nule.

Nule took the book and instinctively opened it at a random page. Nule saw that the book contained not only the dragon writing system, but also the human writing system, both of which seemed to have been copies down by hand. Nule quickly leafed through the book exited, but his excitements quickly faded as he saw some of the word translations were incomplete. Nule looked up at the mole with questioning eyes.

"As you can see some of the translations are not finished. While researching your language, I found that some words were harder to translate than other, which is why the book is incomplete, however there is a substantial amount of translations to make you literate in the dragon language." The mole said as he puffed out his chest in pride.

Nule quickly looked in the book again, then quickly back at the mole as he had an idea.

"Maybe I could buy this book off out you, then fill in the blanks, and return it to you so you can make copies." Nule suggested.

"No that's quite all right, you can have the book, and any more translations you make, you are welcome to share, with others." The mole replied.

"Well how much do I owe you for this other book?" Nule asked as he lifted the book of dragon myths.

The mole smiled and shook his head.

"You take it as well, consider it a gift."

Nule nodded and thanked the mole. Nule however realized that he had left his pack with the bikes which they had left outside of the city; Nule knew he could not go back for it without looking suspicious, so he simply bought a new book carrier from the kind mole, who had included some parchment as well as a quill and ink.

Nule who was no longer interested in the shops, returned to the meeting place, and leafed through the pages of the first book he had been given, and quickly memorized the symbols and their translations, however after Nule had tried to remember the translations without looking at the book, he found that the words were escaping him. Nule looked through the bag, and found the quill and ink bottle.

Suddenly an idea came to Nule. He would write the symbols down ten times, along with their translations and see if that helped him. Nule did this the whole hour, and would have continued if not for the fact, that Sven had come back, and was complaining at Nule.

Nule quickly looked up to see that Sven was not happy, which caused Nule to put away his supplies. Nule had only gotten to twenty words, which he had successfully memorized.

"What are you complaining about?" Nule asked slightly agitated, by Sven's sudden outburst.

"Do you know how many shops I passed that were selling food? It smelled so good, the spiced meats, and soups, and I couldn't buy anything, because you didn't give me any money, and you wouldn't let me steal any." Sven retorted angrily.

"First off we ate like two hours ago, second you should have brought your own money, and third, if you steal any money, you risk the chance of us getting thrown in jail, then we wouldn't be able to help anybody, now would we?" Nule said coldly, causing Sven to shiver as his emerald green eyes stared into Sven's pale blue ones.

Just then Sarah came up to them, with a look of satisfaction on her face.

"What's got you so happy?" Sven asked being slightly grumpy.

"I just had a long talk with some of the cheetah here, and they showed me how to hold a bow, and showed me all sorts of things" Sarah said not bothering to keep her joy out of her voice.

"Oh really like what?" asked Sven sounding slightly curious.

"Let me show you. Here put your hand on my shoulder." Sarah took Sven's left hand and placed it on her right shoulder as she turned so that her back was facing his front.

Suddenly Sarah grabbed, Sven's hand, and pulled forward, hard, causing Sven's feet to leave the ground, as he flew over her shoulder and landed on his back. Those that were near enough to see started to laugh, dragon and cheetah alike. Nule himself could not hold in a chuckle.

Sven quickly stood up from the ground and faced Sarah. Surprisingly he didn't look mad, but instead, amazed.

"Damn girl, not only are you cute, but you can kick some ass." Sven said, causing Sarah to blush slightly.

"Ok guys now, that, that's over, let's get serious. We came to see the guardians, and that's what we're going to do. Their classes should be over by now." Nule said confidently.

With that the three, began to walk, in the direction of the dragon temple. Nule only knew where it was, because of his last visit, along with the fact that it was the largest building, in the center of the city. They ended up walking for thirty minutes, but once they reached the temple, they were amazed.

The temple, unlike the last time Nule had seen it, was decorated in different banners, each varying in size, shape, and color, not only that but it seemed that there was a larger income and outcome of dragons, cheetah's and moles, each with their own business. Nule quickly regaining his composure, lead Sven and Sarah. through the threshold. Inside the halls were much like the last time as well, only this time, the halls held pictures and torches with lit the area up.

Nule, using his memory from his last visit, led them down a set of hallways. Nule who seemed to be taking random lefts, and rights, was starting to worry Sarah, who believed that they would be lost inside the large hallways. Suddenly Nule turned around a right corner, where two large doors stood in front of them. Nule looked back to see the amazement on his companions faces.

Nule walked forward and examined the door. Nule had not noticed the first time, that the door, was elegantly carved, probably by moles, with the four elements which formed a circle, and in the middle, there was a symbol which Nule had never seen before, this symbol appeared to be an eight pointed star, colored a deep shade of purple.

Nule knocked on the door and waited, for a few moments before a deep voice from inside replied.

"Come in." Terrador's voice said, as his voice made Nule's bones shake.

"Nule pushed the door to the guardians chamber open, and the three humans swiftly walked in. The room was much like Nule had last seen it, with the exception of the fire guardian's pillow, which was now occupied by a large orange red dragon.

There were four dragons in the room, all of which were the guardians of their respected element, all but the red dragon, who was only a temporary guardian, until the next generation of guardians was to be chosen.

The four dragons stared at the humans, with what could only be described as disbelief. It was clear the guardians had not expected three humans to be bold enough to request a company with them. The guardian of ice, –Cyril, if Nule remembered correctly- even looked to be slightly angry, with their sudden appearance.

"If you are here to request that the humans be given more rights within Warfang, then I will have to ask you to leave now." Cyril said matter of factly.

"Yes, I would have to agree. Your races request regarding, the holding of weapons in the public area, have been put down many times before, and will continue to be put down until we find that your race is a more respectable species." The yellow dragon said his tongue nearly sparking with electricity. Volteer was his name, Nule only remembered because of its likeness to volt.

"We're not here about human rights; in fact we just entered the city awhile ago." Nule said keeping his voice straight and respectful.

"Then why do you bother us, hopefully not for anything trivial, I hope." Cyril said his voice hinting at a threat.

"Well you see, it's kind of hard to explain, and even then you might not believe us, but basically, we were each visited by, some dragon in our dreams who called himself Ignitus, he told us that he was the chronicler, and that he saw a war coming, and for some reason the…ancestors picked us…to stop…it." Nule trailed as he saw the four dragons look at him with utter shock.

Nule was unable to determine if they though he was lying, or just plain crazy. Nule soon grew uncomfortable under his stair, and based on the shuffling sound that came from behind him, he could tell that Sven and Sarah felt the same way. Nule could not determine if it was his inhibitions that made him feel this way, or the fact that the dragons were much larger than him, and were staring at him deeply, or maybe even the fact that they could possibly be smarter than him, and trying to figure out how to treat this delicate situation.

Terrador looked to Volteer, and then at Cyril as the three passed on a meaningful message just by looking at each other.

"What exactly did this Ignitus say?" Cyril asked all sources of his prideful atmosphere gone, causing Nule to become slightly suspicious. They knew something he didn't, and it unnerved him.

"He told use that a war between our two races was imminent, and that we could do something to help stop it." Nule replied trying not to look guilty.

"And did he mention why there would be a war?" Terrador asked.

"No, but I know why." Nule replied simply hoping the next question he asked was not the one he feared.

"And how would you know that?" Terrador asked making Nule's blood run cold.

"I kind of overheard you and Lydia talking about it." Nule replied trying and succeeding to an extent to hide his guilt.

Terrador didn't seem to get mad, instead he seemed to be impressed, which caused Nule to release the breath he was holding. Terrador quickly turned to the other guardians.

"Do you have any proof, to verify that you were visited by the chronicler?" Volteer asked. It was probably the shortest sentence the yellow dragon had ever spoken.

Nule looked up at the dragons a look of utter helplessness on his face. After all how could you prove that you had a dream? Nule hung his head in defeat. He didn't want to give up, but there was no way to prove something like that, after all dreams were part of the unconscious mind.

Suddenly Sven walked forward and held out his hand, which suddenly started to glow, as the mark of the ice element faded into existence onto his hand. Nule looked and realized he had forgotten about his own mark. He to raise his hands to show the symbol for the fire element. Sarah did to and revealed that she had the earth element on her palm.

The dragons turned and looked at them, before nodding to each other.

"So Ignitus is the new chronicler, then." Terrador said more to himself. "Why are you here then?"

"we need to see the dead dragon, if he was killed by a gun, then I might be able to determine what kind of gun was used to kill him, and then I can find out who are enemies are."

"And how will you be able to do that?" Cyril asked his voice, getting prideful and skeptical again.

"I use to be in the military in the old world, so I know of most guns. Each type of gun uses a different type of bullet, some are small others are large, so I need to see the body." Nule replied keeping his voice calm.

"We have buried the body already, but one of the moles has saved the bullets, if you wish to see them." Volteer said.

"That will work."

With that Terrador led the three humans through the halls until he found a mole, once Terrador explained to the mole what the humans wanted. The Mole pulled out a hand full of smashed bullets, from a pouch he wore around his waist.

Nule silently took then, even at a distance he could tell what kind of bullets they were, but he was afraid to say it out loud, as if confirming what he was seeing would make the world fall apart, and Nule didn't want that again. Slowly Nule took a deep breath and looked at Terrador.

"This is a 5.56 mm bullet. Based on the shape of it, I would say this bullet came from a…AR-15." Nule said trying not to pass out as the air left his lungs.

"What does that mean?" Sven asked looking bewildered.

"An AR-15 strictly a military weapon."

Sven and Sarah silently gasped at the revelation.


	10. Ryus gift

**uAuthors note: thanks for taking the time to read my stories, now it has come to my attention that I have not been developing Sven or Sarah's characters very much. In the last chapter I had meant for Sven to be a loud mouth and challenge the guardians, but left that out as I was rushing to finish the last chapter. I have to work on my patience, so you will be seeing more Dialoged from the two.**

"**Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Spyro cannon characters, nor do I own the Spyro universe.**

**00000**

**Ryu's gift**

"Wait, let me get this straight." Sven said dumbfounded. "You're telling me that the military, the one that brought us here, is out there killing dragons?"

"I only have one other idea of what could have happened, and that was whoever killed the dragon was doing it out of self defense, but that doesn't make sense, guns are banned, and to even own one, is a crime." Nule replied looking utterly shocked.

"It does not matter, the one who has done this needs to be brought to justice. Where is this military hold up at?" asked Terrador. It was clear from his posture that he wanted to get his paws on the culprit.

"It's not that easy." Sven said. "The military went into hiding right after Domum Dracones was finished, with the promise, that they would keep the human race alive."

Nule turned to Sven shocked by his words.

"How do you know this?" Sarah asked, she was suddenly speaking out loud. Sarah was a quite person, so she suddenly speaking up caused the others to jump.

"People gossip a lot, and sometimes that information lands on the wrong ears." Sven said as he turned to Sarah.

"Well we can't just let the military continue to do this, if we don't do something soon, word will quickly get out, and then we'll have trouble on our hands for sure." Sarah replied thinking deeply.

"What is your next step?' Terrador asked, his voice a little judging, like he was testing them.

"All we can do right now is to put ears up around the dragon city, have people we trust keep tabs on anything that looks suspicious, then have them report back to you and you can inform us." Nule said with a sigh.

"What do you mean by suspicious?" Terrador asked.

"Well the metal that those bullets were made from, I've never seen it before, which means that they probably bought the metal from Warfang, or they have their own mine somewhere. If they are buying from the city, then have a watch put out for anyone buying large amounts of that metal, four or more pieces of the metal." Nule said thinking fast.

"What should we do when we do catch a human buying the metal?"

"Have him tailed, if you have to hire a large group, and place a few at each of the shops that sell that metal, then when a human is caught buying it, a guard will tail him."

"That still won't help the matter though, what happens if they leave the city?" Sven asked.

"Simply there are guards posted at each gate right, every human that leaves, is to have his possessions searched, and if he is found with that metal, then it's taken from him. Say people have been stealing certain items, and this is to prevent anyone from stealing more"

Terrador nodded his head and was about to say something, when suddenly someone called out to him.

"Terrador!" called a voice from down the hall.

Terrador quickly looked in the direction of the voice as well as the three humans. Walking towards them from down the hall was a purple dragon slightly shorter than Terrador himself. The dragon had golden scales on his under belly, and two golden orange horns. The dragon had deep amethyst eyes, and a tail blade shaped like a spear tip. The dragon had a puzzled look on his face, when he neared enough to see the three humans.

"Oh, hi." the dragon said kindly.

The three humans gave their greetings as well, some more shy than others, before the purple dragon turned back to Terrador, his face serious.

"Yes Spyro?' asked Terrador, clearly happy to see the dragon.

"Uh, sorry was I interrupting something important?" The purple dragon named Spyro asked.

"Yea you are, do you mind?" Sven said rather rudely, which caused Nule to glare at Sven.

Terrador began telling Spyro about the three humans, and what had recently come to light. The purple dragon listened intently as he took in every word. Nule had inquired to Terrador about keeping the information a secret but Terrador reassured him, as he told Nule how Spyro was the purple dragon who was destined to save the world from a terrible evil. This rose some questions inside of Nule yet he kept them quite, for now, at least until he could make a little more sense of things.

"If you want, I can help you with the problem at hand." Spyro offered, never seeming to lose his friendly nature, or becoming judgmental towards the humans.

"Thanks, any bit of help we can get is appreciated." Nule replied.

"Speak for yourself, I could do this by myself if I wanted." Sven mumbled.

It was obvious that everyone had heard Sven, because everyone who was currently talking in the group went deathly silent. Nule chose to ignore Sven for the time being at least until they were in a more privet area. Nule nodded towards the two dragons and motioned for Sven and Sarah to follow him. With his memory in hand, Nule and the three quickly left the dragon temple moving past at a respectable pace. He didn't want to alert anyone around him that anything was wrong, or let anyone know that inside he was boiling with fury.

"_How can Sven be so rude? Terrador and Spyro didn't do a thing, and yet he's acting like the lone soldier." _Nule thought nearly shouting in his head. _"I don't even think he takes this seriously."_ While deep in his thoughts, Nule had not noticed that he had started to move faster causing Sven and Sarah to jog to keep up with him. Unknowingly, Nule was creating an atmosphere, which caused people to shrink away.

At last when Nule, Sven, and Sarah, had left Warfang, and were a good distance away from the guards. Nule suddenly stopped his bike which he had retrieved once he had left Warfang. Sven and Sarah stopped theirs as well, and walked towards Nule.

"Is something wrong?" Sarah asked. Nule immediately turned his attention to Sven.

Nule grabbed Sven by his shirt and threw him, causing him to fall back several feet.

"Why do you have to be an ass? Why can't you just shut your mouth? Your little _'comment'_ could have brought the war even closer; did you stop to think about that?" Nule asked yelling furiously. He was fuming with rage. Nule understood the seriousness of what was happening, but obviously Sven didn't. He was taking this as a game, and playing with everyone's fate, by being a rude arrogant prick.

Sven quickly picked himself up off the ground and stared at Nule, the same furious look on his face.

"What's your problem bro? You think you're better than everyone, is that it? I didn't sign up to be some hero; I'm only doing this because it's in my best interests to help you, but get this straight, I don't obey anyone." Sven screamed. Sven was lying to both himself and Nule, deep down Sven really did want to help, he did take things seriously, but Sven had a habit of stirring up a little trouble when things got boring.

"I don't think I'm better than anyone. This world is perfect, there's no technology. No way of creating nuclear bombs, no bio weapons, but it's being threatened. I want to keep my life, I want to keep everyone I care about safe, and if that means I have to keep the people I don't like safe, to do it, then so be it. As for you following my orders, fine you don't have to listen to me, I won't boss you around, but I will make educated suggestions, that are highly beneficial to everyone." Nule retorted. It was clear, he was not going to get Sven to listen to him, but maybe he would be more inclined to take advice.

"Good, so long as you don't boss me around I'm fine with that." Sven replied lowering his voice to a decent tone.

"Then it's agreed, now here's my first educated suggestion, try not to piss off the race of large powerful dragons that could easily kill us, just by stepping on us." Nule said in a sarcastic voice.

"Noted." Sven said. With that the three got back on their bikes and returned home.

**00000**

Nule had gone to bed as soon as he returned home, however his dreams were not interrupted and Nule slept comfortably that night. The next day Nule got up, and showered and quickly groomed him, then quickly dressed himself, before heading out for Ryu's forge. Nule made it their fairly quickly.

As soon as Nule walked in the door, he was instantly grabbed from behind and thrown to the ground, however Nule was faster than when he was in the military, quickly put his hands out in front of himself, and stopped himself from falling. Nule quickly stood up punched out, but stopped at the last second. Standing before him was Ryu in a fighting position.

"Ryu? What are you doing?" Nule asked confused. Ryu didn't reply, instead he brought his leg up and almost kicked Nule in the head; however Nule dodged just in time.

"What the hell Ryu?" yelled Nule.

"Don't talk, just fight." Ryu grunted.

Ryu did a roundhouse kick, which Nule ducked under. Nule while still crouched quickly brought his foot to the back of Ryu's foot and tripped him. Ryu fell to the ground with a loud thud, which caused Nule to rush to his side and turned him onto his back

"Shit, are you okay old man?" Nule asked frantically.

Before Nule knew it Ryu's hand shot out and pinched at the base of Nule's neck causing him to stiffen up. Ryu quickly stood up while still holding onto Nule's neck and more accurately a pressure point. Ryu let go of the presser point, but not before, he hit Nule where his shoulder and arm met, on both arms.

Nule looked at Ryu stunned. The old man was quick on his feet, and sneaky. Nule went to lift his arms to continue the fight, but found that his arms wouldn't respond. Nule stared at Ryu stunned, before he realized what Ryu had done.

"What the hell's going on? Why'd you attack me?" Nule asked raising his voice a little bit.

"I have something important to say, that I had meant to tell you yesterday, but you rushed off, so I chose this path, so that I would have your full attention." Ryu commented casually, as if it was natural to attack someone out of nowhere

"What's so important that you need to attack me?"Nule asked failing to keep the anger out of his voice. Nule was not really angry at Ryu, more or less he was angry at himself. Even with his speed increased, Nule had somehow managed to get his butt kicked by an old man. This caused Nule to question his training schedule. Nule still trained regularly to keep in shape, but obviously he was slacking.

"You need my help if you're going to stop a war." Ryu said plainly, causing Nule to take on a look of surprise.

Before Nule could ponder on how Ryu knew about the war Ryu spoke again.

"I was listening in on you three, and when I heard that someone had been caught spying on Lydia and one of the dragon guardians, I knew you were telling the truth." Ryu explained.\

Nule quickly closed his mouth.

"How can you help us?" Nule asked a little too quickly signifying his disbelief in the old man.

"I am the descendent of what was once a large organization of ninja. My family is old fashioned and believed it was necessary to train each generation, so that the ninja societies ways would not fade." Ryu explained. "There are some lessons my father never taught me, so your training will not be complete, but I can show you a great deal that may help you along the way."

"What sort of things can you teach us?" Nule asked, his mind wondering to his limp arms at his sides.

"I can teach you to immobilize a person with a single punch, I can teach you ways of disarming someone without getting stabbed or shot in the process, and most importantly, I can teach you hand to hand combat, and weapon combat."

"I already know how to use a sword." Nule replied sounding slightly offended.

"Not the way I do, I can show you how to effectively disarm someone with a sword. I can also teach you to control your anger, as well as teach you the consequences of the actions of a single person." Ryu said rather harshly, causing Nule to look up in surprise.

Nule hated to be yelled at or scolded, but right now he was being offered one of the greatest opportunities that could be given to him, with the current problems. Nule was both exited, and slightly ashamed. Exited because he would be able to carry out the duties which had been thrusted apoun him so suddenly, and ashamed, because he hadn't trusted Ryu, with this bit of information. Ever since Nule had met Ryu, the old man had gone out on a limb for him and taken him as serious as possible.

"I'll need to talk to Sven, and Sarah, to see what they say about it. If they say yes, then I will accept your help.

**00000**

**Ok so this one is kind of short, and not a crowd pleaser, trust me I know, it didn't please me, but that's what you get with forced work. Now please note while this chapter may be boring, it has a role in the story. Now here is a little heads up I plan for the next chapter to skip about three to five years, but I won't say anything more than that, I don't want to ruin the story for you.**

**Thanks to my reviewers, for taking the time to review my story, oh and also I will be deleting The legend of the purple and silver dragon, and making it into a catalog of all the information that I have come up with for the Spyro universe. When I write I like to keep all my stories centered on the same beliefs and the same information so I don't have to stress myself on coming up with new information. Now when I do come up with something that I find interesting, like myths based on the ancestors, then that is where I will be posting it, now the legend of the purple and silver dragon will still be there, but I may add more or remove bits of information. **


	11. Finally, Some action

**Disclaimer: I do not own any of the legend of Spyro characters, such as Spyro Cynder or the guardians. I own Nule, Sven, and Sarah, as well as Demos.**

**00000**

**Finally, Some Action**

It had been three years since Nule, Sven, and Sarah had discovered the Military was behind the death of a dragon, in those three years a lot had changed.

Sven and Sarah had started to date about two years ago, which struck Nule as odd, until he had accidentally over heard the two talking. Nule never wanted to hear that conversation again, but could not help but smile, because soon after they started dating Sven's attempt to be a bad ass had calmed down and he was willing to do as Nule asked. Nule and Sven quickly learned to get along, but they never really became close friends.

Another thing that had changed was Nule, who before found himself with countless hours to himself and nothing to do about it, had finally found a way to emerge himself in the dragon culture. It had turned out that the book that had been given to him by the mole who owned the book store in Warfang was extremely helpful. The book had opened up a new world for him, and when he had learned quite a lot from the book. Nule had quickly learned how to read and write in the dragon language, and used what knowledge he gained from it, to expand the book itself.

Nule himself was sitting at the desk he had bought about a year ago, on the table sat two opened books and different sheets of paper, which had, the dragon language written on them, over and over again. Nule had been working on new translations, for the past three years, and he found that he was almost finished. The dragon's written language was a difficult language to understand. The language was based on runes which curved and twisted. Nule had determined that each rune represented a spoken word, but the way the words were placed was a little tough to understand. It started with a single rune which started the sentence, yet ended with the same rune, and sometimes a single rune could be two or more spoken words, it all depended on how the other runes in the sentence were placed, and the meanings behind them. This made learning the language hard and sometimes unpredictable, but Nule would brainstorm and eventually come up with a proper translation.

Nule pouring over a book which he had just bought the other day, and was working on the translations of some very difficult runes, when there was a knock on his door, causing Nule to jump slightly, he had not noticed the footsteps that had approached his front door, nor had he been paying attention to the time of day. Nule quickly put away his things which he hid in a secret draw in his desk, a creation of his.

Nule quickly approached the front door, opened it and stared out into the dimly lit outside. There in the shadows stood a figure wearing a black hooded cloak, with the symbol of a viper in mid-strike embroidered onto the left side just above the heart of the man who stood in t he shadows. Nule immediately recognized the symbol and stepped aside to allow the man to enter with a swish of his cloak.

"This had better not be over something petty again." Nule warmed the man. The man in the cloak had frequently visited Nule, with reports that had come all over the dragon realms.

A year and a half ago, the humans had become more accustomed to the dragon realms and its indigenous population, so much that they began to travel and explore the dragon realms, at first many humans had not come back or ever been heard from, which had lead them to take a more cautious approach and so they, accompanied with the guide of a cheetah or dragon had begun to set up settlements where they could farm, or mine, and live a less chaotic city life. Some of the settlements proved to be very successful, and brought the humans who lived there to a higher level of living, while others lead to nothing more than misery and grief.

"I have evidence that three people have bought more than twenty blocks of black steel, from five different settlements, the largest purchase coming from Dauntless, the settlement closest to the ancient grove." The man replied as he removed his hood, revealing short blonde cropped hair and a thin beard. The man had deep purpled eyes, a small side effect from living in the dragon realms

"Have you informed Sven yet?" Nule asked slightly taken off guard.

The ancient grove was a place with a river of pure poison, only the strongest men and women dared to go and live there. The Dauntless was a very successful mining settlement. No one had ever gone near the ancient grove, let alone mine anything at or around the ancient grove, the result was a large deposit of oar veins filled with all sorts of metals, the most abundant being black steel. Black steel was just like regular steel with the exception that it had been tainted with poison which turned the metal a deep black color, the end result was a highly dangerous metal that if crafted into a sword or, in the current case bullets, they could cause a lot of damage.

"He was the first to be informed of these actions, after which he told me to tell you." The man replied.

The man was in fact a member of Svens new thieves guild. They had been organized by Sven as soon as a few days after they had returned. Sven had gone around and found the most talented thieves in the city. His guild however did not consist of only humans. Sven had spread his power to the other inhabitants of the dragon realms. Sven held the company of the cheetah tribe, as well as new tribes that the humans had later discovered, which consisted of the dire clan, a race of large wolf looking creatures. The dire clan was clumsy when it came to stealth but was excellent fighters and was commonly used as body guards for thieves who would swipe some ones purse while they were not looking. Thankfully Sarah was not part of the thieves guild, and Sven used his organization to obtain information for them, which was very helpful in the long run

The thieves' guild was well organized, which made Nule surprised. Sven would have his little thieves go out and steal from people, and then he would take a small percentage of what they stole, and place it in a safe place. With the money he had acquired he would then stock up on supplies during the winter for those that were in his guild. Not all the money was stolen however, Sven had bought some bossiness's, with the money that had been stolen, which, helped him acquire a small fortune.

"What about the guardians?" Nule asked keeping his voice calm, not letting the excitement of finally being able to do something control his actions.

"Sven sent someone to deliver the message personally." the man replied, a little pride showing through his words.

"Good." Nule said as he went to his desk and began to write on a new piece of parchment, before quickly sealing it, and handing it to the man and a few coins. "Take this to the blacksmith Ryu, it explains why I will not be working tomorrow."

The man nodded, pocketed the coins, and quickly left Nules home. Nule went back to his desk, and put up his supplies while grabbing two books on the desk that was labeled in the dragon runes _"The Ancestors. The beginning of us all _and one labeled _"Magic, principles for proper use," _and placed it in a satchel, before Nule quickly walked into his bedroom. Nule walked to the end of his bed, where a large wooden chest stood locked. Nule quickly unlocked the chest. Inside the chest lay an assortment of blades and pieces of clothing. Nule quickly grabbed; black clothing, a belt with loops to hold items, pouches, a straight sword, with a doubled edged blade, and a combat knife.

When Nule had finished dressing himself, he stood before a mirror checking to see if everything was where it should be. Nule wore a smoky grey trench coat, which had a hood, a pair of black leather combat boots, a right handed leather glove, which had plates of metal over the fingers, knuckles and the back of the hand. Nule opened his trench coat to reveal leather armor on his shoulders and chest, as well as a belt, which held three pouches, the combat knife, and the sword which was currently sheathed. Inside of the each of the bags held powder. The powder was used to throw into the eyes of his enemies to disorient them for a moment.

Once Nule was sure everything was where it should be, he quickly exited his house and began to walk down the street towards the middle of the city. The streets were almost completely empty, which gave Nule a small insight to the hour. The people, who were still outside, were either people hurrying to get home, or thieves looking for the next victim.

Apoun seeing Nule, a group of three thieves walked up to him hoping to for a big score. Nule looked at them and saw that each of them had Svens little insignia, either embroidered onto their cloths, where consisted of either robes or cloaks, or it was tattooed onto their body, clearly in sight. Nule quickly removed his glove and lifted it for all to see the symbol of fire fade into existence, on his palms.

This made the thieves hesitate for a moment. Sven had warned his thieves about attacking Nule, and the consciences of what was to happen. The thieves, overcoming their sudden startle, continued their walk towards Nule, however this time they had a more respectable approach.

"Good day to you." The first thief said. He was a large male from the Dire clan, with a brown coat, with golden yellow eyes.

"Tell me where does the viper hold his court this night?" Nule asked his voice hollow. The viper was actually Sven, he didn't want people to know his name, so that when one of his thieves was captured, they could not give away his real name.

"What business might you have with the viper?" The Dire male asked, it was clear he was the leader of this small group of thieves, the strongest out of them.

"My business with him is none of your concern." Nule replied, he was getting tired of these thieves, they were wasting his time, with their silly little games, they had no idea what Nule could do, or what he was trying to prevent.

"Then what will you give us for taking you to him?" Another man asked, a black human with long dreadlocks that hung in his face obscuring his face.

"You should not worry about what I could give you, but what the viper will do to you when he finds out that you purposely held onto information requested by his right hand man." Nule replied raising his voice to a threating level.

This made the three hesitated for a moment obviously stunned, however the last man of the group, a cheetah that had a sulfur yellow coat with brown spots marking his hands and face, spoke up.

"If you're the vipers' right hand man, then how come you don't know where he is?" He asked triumphantly.

"I know of his halls, I simply do not know which one he has chosen to occupy at the current moment, he is after a free man, and prefers his word over mine." Nule replied his voice deathly hollow, yet leaking with malice.

"Prove it them, prove you're the vipers right hand man." The dire said, hinting at a threat.

"Nule reached from inside his coat and pulled out a small coin, on the coin the picture of the striking viper in a deep green color, while around the sides of the coin, were little marks painted red. This coin was Svens way of letting lower thieves of the authority of higher ups.

One of the thieves grabbed the coin and examined it closely, before handing it back

"The court near the north gate, he favors it." The thief said, respect showing in his voice. Thieves had no sense of the laws of man, but when it came to the thieves' guild, they did well to respect the laws that had been set by Sven.

With a nod, Nule was off headed for the north gate court. The north gate court had once been a restaurant; however Sven had bought the owners store and relocated him to a more active part of the city, and now used it as his court. Nule quickly arrived at the court and knocked on the door three times. Immediately the door opened and a woman stood in the door way, in her hand she held a card.

"Two crossed swords." Nule said with a dull tone, the women quickly moved aside, allowing Nule to enter.

The phrase was in fact what had been on the other side of the card. Nule had found his ability to summon parts of the past to be so advanced with years of training that he already knew about the simple things that went on around him, such as the picture on the card.

Nule quickly moved inside out of the approaching winter air. Inside, the roof of the first floor reached up to where the second story roof would have been. The room was filled with tables, filled with people counting, money stolen, or won in gambling, which was happening at more than one table., while other tables had meals set about which was served by women, all of who were all nearly the same. Each woman was around the same height, and wore clothing that while they did not match in color, matched in the way they were sowed and decorated, and each of the women had their hairs in a braid.

The women looked harmless enough, but Nule knew better than to trust someone based on a casual glance. When Nule would take a closer look at one of the women, who passed to close, he saw the outline of hidden blades, which were tucked under their shirts, or stashed away into little cuts along their dresses and shirts, while their hair, secretly held, sharp wire, which was expertly concealed in the braid, ensuring that the braid could not be used to drag them to the ground, if they were caught stealing.

At the far wall, stood a long rectangular table with what appeared to be a throne in the middle of it. There were chairs on each side of the throne looking one each losing luster as they continued to the ends of the table, signifying the rank of those that sat in the chairs, the closest to the throne being the more trustworthy, while the ones near the end, being the less trustworthy, while all those that sat and gambled, and ate at the tables in the center of the room, were the expendable.

As Nule expected Sven was sitting in the middle with Sarah, sitting at his right side. Sven was dressed much like an assassin instead of a thief lord, his clothing was lose, and easily flowed in the wind, to allow him full mobility, with its fair share of hidden knives, his clothing was a deep black color, with which was evenly placed on his chest, shoulders and legs. As far as Nule could tell there were no embroiders.

Sarah on the other hand was dressed in a white dress, that had gold embroiders, lining her arms and sleeves. She openly had a bow with a quiver of arrows strapped onto her back as well as a sword strapped to her side..

At the sight of Nule, both Sven and Sarah stood up and walked to a side room Nule quickly followed them. The room was lined with shelves of cheese and grain. Nule looked around and saw that the room was empty however there was, a stone tile which was obscured from its place, Nule quickly removed it and saw a hole below along with Sven and Sarah. Nule quickly jumped down while covering the tile up, and saw that there was a tunnel.

Sven took off down the tunnel, while Nule and Sarah followed close behind. No one talked as Sven tracked his way through the dark tunnel, his sight being much better than a normal person, led the three through the tunnels with little to no trouble. They walked in silence for a few minutes, to excited to speak. Ahead Nule could see a torch marking an exit. The three quickly exited the tunnel. Nule was surprised to see that they were about half a mile from Donum Dracones.

"What is the official report?" Nule asked as he stopped Sven before he could move any further. Nule was like that, he always wanted to truth from the source.

"One of my spies was closely watching a forge, and saw a man leave with a pack full of black steel. My spy tried to follow him, but the man was smart and moved in open area, with very few people, making the act of pursuit impossible without being seen." Sven replied, a little annoyance in his voice.

"How do we know for a fact, that it was black steel?" Sarah asked curiously. She had a good point; it could only have been a misunderstanding and could have meant nothing.

"I had a man working inside the shop, and he was sure he saw black steel changing hands." Sven continued changing his voice to a softer tone.

"Well let's not waste time then, we need to find out now, and report back to the guardians." Nule said sternly more to himself than to Sven and Sarah.

**00000**

The day was just starting to form over the horizon, when Nule, Sven, and Sarah had first saw the outline of the village which lay to near to the Ancient Grove. The three quickly hastened their pace, and when at last they had finally arrived after a long cold night's walk, the found that their path was blocked by a burly man wearing black armor. Nule immediately recognized the metal, it was ebony do to its glossy black look, yet it did not have a tint of green in it that would classify it as black steel

"Stop! Do not move another step." The burly man called, as he pulled out a small blade also made of ebony. "What brings three boot lickers to Dauntless?" the man asked, a smirk clear on his face.

Out of the corner of Nule's eye, he could see Sven; place his hands behind his back. Nule was not stupid; he knew full well Sven carried a pair of thin blades, about as thick as a tooth. Nule quickly stepped forward.

"We aint bootlickers, shit face!" Nule said doing his best to impersonate what he thought sounded like a conceded fool.

The man along with Sven and Sarah, both looked on in shock, but the man quickly recovered, as he put his blade away and undid the straps to his armor, letting the heavy black steel fall to the ground with a loud thud.

"You need to watch your mouth, would you have said that to anyone else, you'd be dead right now, I'm only going to teach you a lesson." The man said as he cracked his knuckles.

"Nule removed his trench coat, and handed it to Sarah, letting go of all of his blades inside except the one strapped to his side.

"Nice blade, I might take it when you're laying on the ground fighting for breath." The man said while smiling as he circled Nule.

Nule slowly followed the man with his eyes, waiting for him to strike. The man circled two more times as he sized Nule up, with his eyes, deciding how best to strike. When the man had made his way behind Nule he quickly grabbed him from behind and placed him in a head lock, with his arms sticking upward, Nule however brought his right foot back just as the man grabbed him and planted his heel in the man's gut, causing him to let out an "oof" as he let go and stumbled back a few steps. Nule had not kicked him as hard as he could have, a simple kick would hurt him, any stronger and the man could end up dying.

The man quickly recovered and ran at Nule his fist cocked, Nule had to say the man was certainly fast, but not fast enough, with a quick side step Nule easily dodged the man's attack, but not before, he put his foot out in his way causing him to trip and fall to the ground. Without hesitation Nule turned and picked the man up off the ground, but before he could do anything, Nule punched him in the face sending him back a step or two. The man was now pissed and lunged at Nule. Nule pretended to be surprised enough to stay put, and allowed the man to punch him in the face, causing Nule to step back.

The man seeing his chance rushed up to Nule, and punched him in the gut, wrenching the breath from his lungs. Nule quickly recovered just in time to see the man aim a right hook at his face, but Nule leaned to the side and grabbed his fist and twisted causing the man to scream out in pain. Nule quickly let go, and lifted his foot in front of him and kicked the man in the chest causing him to fall to the ground on his back.

Nule bent over panting but didn't try to attack the man again. It was clear the fight was over, and Nule had won. After a few minutes the man picked himself up off the ground as well, and walked over to Nule, however Sven and Sarah jumped in his way blocking Nule from him.

"You fight well kid, Dauntless is lucky to have a visitor like you, where'd you learn to fight like that, the military?" The man asked a smile on his face, all hostility was gone, as the man treated Nule as if he was an old friend.

"My dad was, when he was in the old world, taught me what they taught him, Now I practice every day, never know when you might need it." Nule commented as he panted hard, his right eye slightly swelling, it would be gone within ten minutes tops.

"You've got a good arm you lad, use it well." The man said as he stepped aside, letting the three walk through the gate that surrounded the city of Dauntless. The inside was filled with men and women both dressed in some type of armor, the most favorite of the settlement being regular steel, and ebony.

"Nule?" Sarah said clearly concerned and confused.

"Yea, what's up?" Nule replied a knowing grin on his face.

"What the hell was that? I thought I was supposed to be the arrogant one, you're the wise." Sven said trying to keep his voice low so as not to attract too much attention.

"You still are. The Dauntless people are a warrior settlement, when he insulted us, he was testing to see if we are selves were unafraid, and by fighting him, I proved that I am not afraid of a fight." Nule explained a satisfied look on his face.

"But why didn't you use any of the techniques Ryu taught you?" Sarah asked. Nule now understood why she was confused, Nule had internally allowed himself to be hit, and she knew it, further more he had restrained himself from using a better fighting style.

"Because if I showed them a fighting style they were unfamiliar with, it could cause us some serious problems, and may even tip off our prey of what we were doing here." Nule went on. Both Sven and Sarah looked at each other for a moment before turning back to Nule and nodding.

"So we should keep what we know to ourselves then?" Sarah asked.

"Right now that would be the best course of action." Nule replied. "Now Sven, your informants information, how old is it?" Nule asked, as he looked around for possible eavesdroppers. Slowly to draw attention away from them, Nule began to walk towards the market and began to examine the goods that they had.

"My informant, first saw it two days ago, but stayed to see if the man would come back, when he didn't my informant rushed back, and delivered the news." Sven replied, looking slightly confused.

"What was the name of the shop?" Nule continued, he wanted to make sure nothing was left out.

"The Iron Fist, Why do you ask?" Sven inquired.

"We need to start our search somewhere, and what better place than the place of our suspicions?" Nule asked rhetorically.

The two nodded as Nule began to ask around for the Iron Fist, which they had quickly discovered was the most popular place to buy weapons. The Iron Fist sold a variety of weapons, ranging from war hammers to swords, and small blades, as well as armor, made of most types of metal, however Nule could not see any black steel, armor or weapons, they probably were held for high paying customers.

Nule closed his eyes for a moment as he called on the events of the past, which the quickly complied as surrounding area was filled with the specters of the past, who were Invisible to all but Nule. This had soon become second nature to Nule, and he found that now he could summon the past with little effort, and still concentrate, further more he had learned that he could single fade other specters with a single thought or specific information about what had happened. This he too did easily, which caused all other specters to fade away except a single man.

The specter was translucent, but his appearance was still somewhat intact. The man walked up to the counter and stayed there for a few moments, while talking to the shop keeper. After a few more minutes of talking the specter walked away from counter and made his way, towards the nearest gate, which happened to be in their direction. As the specter neared, Nule caught sight of his facial features.

The man had short black hair that was showing signs of graying at the roots, as well short nose with small nostrils, and a thin graying beard. It took Nule but a moment to realize what he had just seen, and it stunned him. The specter was of a memory over two days old, and was very unstable and quickly fading, however while the specters face was blurred and unclear, Nule could have sworn he had seen that face before.

Nule on an impulse, quickly removed his trench coat, and handed it to Sven and quickly asked his companions to wait, while he checked something. With that done, Nule, with no other weapons but the sword he had bought off of Ryu, Nule approached the counter of The Iron Fist, and began to strike up a conversation with the owner.

"Greeting sir." Said Nule in a rather cheery voice, none quite like what he was truly feeling inside.

"What can I do for you today, young man?" asked the man at the counter.

"Well I was sparing with a buddy of mine the other day, and my blade took a rather hard blow, so I brought it in hoping to see if any damage had been done and to see if I might need a replacement." Nule replied sounding slightly worried at the prospect, causing the man to nod with sympathy.

"I understand, we get people out here all the time trying to keep their blades in good shape, good to meet another person who appreciates a fine blade. Well then let's see it." The man said as he held out his hands palms up.

Nule carefully unsheathed his sword and with great care handed the blade over to the man, and he purposely made himself appear to be jittery, and concerned. The man took one look at Nule and mistook him for a young poor man with nothing but his blade, and smiled inwardly, before turning his eyes to the blade. With great care the man ran his hands up and the blade as well as the hilt and checked to see if anything was lose. The blade gave a slight jingle as the blade moved slightly scraping against the hilts metal.

The man looked down at the blade and frowned, slightly, before laying the blade on the counter and sighing.

"Kid, where did you get this blade?" the man asked clearly dissatisfied.

"I bought it off of a guy in Donum Dracones, an old Japanese man." Nule replied sounding slightly perplexed, and worried

The man paused for a moment before considering what he had just heard.

"You bought this off Ryu in Donum Dracones?" the man asked.

"Well…um yes, why?" The man quickly took this information in and decided on what to say next.

"Kid I'm sorry to say this, but you bought the wrong sword. This is meant only for display, and using this blade in combat, even for sparing is extremely dangerous. What were you thinking when you bought this thing?" The man asked perplexed. In truth Nule had known it was a display only sword, he had internally bought it, it's function was merely to scare off petty thieves, but he could also use it as a cover, and now the latter option was quickly coming into play.

"I thought it was a real sword, and when I got it, it looked and felt sharp." Nule explained, hoping to come off as slightly dimwitted when it came to swords.

The man began to laugh, deeply. It was clear he found this the funniest thing in the word, and wasted no time in calling his workers away from the forge to spread the story of the idiotic boy, who knew nothing of swords. Nule looked down in shame and tried his best to look embarrassed.

Once the joking had been set aside the men returned to work, and the owner turned to Nule again

"Sorry kid but it looks like you made one hell of a mistake, your just lucky it didn't cost you your life." The man commented. "So what do you want to do with this then?" the man said pointing at the fake sword.

"I guess I'll keep it and hang it on my wall, I mean I spent good money for the damn thing, I might as well keep it, right?" Nule said sounding frustrated.

"That's a good way to look at it boy, now how about I make you a deal?" The man said as he handed the sword back to Nule.

"What sort of deal?" Nule asked sounding slightly suspicious yet hopeful.

"Since you made me and my employees laugh, how bout I make you a proper sword out of any material you want, half the price." The man said emphasizing with his hands.

With that done, Nule and the owner of The Iron Fist, struck up a bargain. The man had agreed to make Nule a three in a half foot short sword which he had agreed to make out of steel. Half an hour and twenty measurements later Nule left The Iron Fist, to return within a week to pick up his new sword, however Nule would never use it. He planned to use only swords he and Ryu crafted.

Nule quickly returned to Sven and Sarah with a large grin on his face. After he retrieved his trench coat, and the three had moved a considerable amount of space away from the large crowd, in the center of Dauntless, Nule quickly began to explain to the two what he had been doing.

While he was being measured for a new sword, the owner of The Iron Fist began to tell him of past transactions, including the one which had happened two days ago. It turned out that the man who had stopped at The Iron Fist, had originally wanted to buy a special type of metal that was only used to craft dragon armor, and it appeared he wanted to buy quite a lot of it. The owner of The Iron Fist, had explained that he had wanted to buy a crate of full of the metal, however the owner had refused, when he tried to bribe the man to keep the transaction quite, so when that had not worked the man had instead bought the black steel, which for some strange reason was not closely monitored.

"So what do we do now?" Sarah asked.

"We need to find out where the guy who bought all the black steel went, however, we also need someone to watch The Iron Fist, just in case the guy comes back." Nule replied.

"But how are we going to know it's him, if we don't know what he looks like." Sven replied with a hint of sarcasm in his voice.

"Short black hair, with graying roots, thing graying beard, ice blue eyes, short thin nose with small nostrils, and a bulky build, he might also be carrying some kind of satchel."Nule quickly explained. "So who wants to stay behind?" Nule asked.

Sven and Sarah battled it out with a quick argument, before; they had agreed that Sven would stay behind and watch the shop. With that Nule again called on the memories of two days ago, and waited as the soon saw the only specter that mattered to him at the current moment. With that Nule and Sarah set off after the specter, but they found that following him soon became very difficult.

People tended to leave behind a memory of their actions, which Nule with enough concentration, could call apoun to show the actions in clear, however these memories were small and tended to fade quickly, the more mundane the act of a person, the quicker it tended to fade.

Nule tried as best he could to follow, but the memory was jumping and skipping ahead or falling behind, and sometimes completely disappearing, however the specter was far from fading from the earth, and so Nule and Sarah followed on with little complaint.

Their walk to no longer than five or six minutes, the specter had led them to the edge of the ancient grove which was clearly divided by a thing line. On one side of the line was the light green grass, while on the other side, everything was masked in a purple shadow. The trees that lay on the other side were just that regular trees, however the poison river that ran through the land, and turned the land into an ominous waste land had also twisted the trees, so that they curved in odd shapes and grew out of the ground at an angle.

Not only had the specter led them to the edge of the ancient grove, but it had also led them to the edge of a cliff. It was here that the specter climbed down the edge of the cliff, and disappeared from Nule's sight for but a moment. Nule quickly rushed to the edge and looked over but found that the Specter had vanished from sight. Nule cursed as he looked over the edge. Below was nothing but water, and Nule could see no sight of the transparent specter on the side of the rock wall. Somehow, he had lost a memory of the past. As much as he wished to call apoun the specter again, it would be impossible, each time revenants of the past were called, and it broke the memory down, causing jumps in the specters path. It was sad yet simple truth that Nule had yet to accept, and try as he might.

Nule had often hoped that the chronicler would show himself to Nule again and point him in the right direction, however the first book he had ever bought from the mole in Warfang, had explained that the Chronicler very rarely helped those intertwined with the fate of the dragon realms, so Nule soon gave up that hope, and began to rely on himself and his companions.

"We have to turn back." Nule said in frustration, as he kicked a nearby tree, causing it to slightly rock.

"Why what's wrong." Sarah asked looking perplexed. Nule had always been able to follow a lead, and never turned up empty handed.

"We've hit a dead end." Nule replied angrily, he didn't feel like talking about it, he had finally gotten a led, yet he had somehow lost it over a cliff.

"How?" Sarah asked. Her questions were getting on his nerves, as they were forcing him closer and closer to his shame.

"He must have jumped off the cliff, I couldn't follow him after that, and he must've fallen in the water below. His anger subsided enough to allow himself a moment of clear thought. They needed to be able to track this guy, and find his hiding place, but how?

Suddenly it clicked in his mind. The last person to have seen the man was the shop keeper of The Iron Fist. If the man were to come back for more supplies, they might have him if the shopkeeper complied with their wishes.

"We're going back to The Iron Fist." Nule said with finality in his voice.

"Why." Sarah asked perplexed.

"I'll explain when we see Sven again." Nule said as he began to walk back to Dauntless.

**00000**

Nule and Sarah had made it back inside Dauntless with little to no problems, and had quickly explained to Sven what had happened, after which they had all agreed on a course of action. They would lay in wait for the owner of The Iron Fist to close, and then once he was alone they would pounce, and make their intentions clear. It was simple; all they had to do was make sure no one was around watching.

This they had done all day, each taking turns to watch the shop. The light by now had faded to a purple hue and cloaked everything in red and purple light. This light was not like the purple shadow that hung over the ancient grove. In the ancient grove the shadow was cold and evil looking, yet now while in Dauntless the light was warm and welcoming. While the others took their turn Nule took to his satchel and at random pulled out a book. The book he had pulled out was _"Magic principals for proper use."_ Nule was intrigued; he had bought this book awhile ago and had not yet taken the time to study the book.

Perhaps the reason Nule had not taken the time to read the book, was he feared what might happened, should he discover he could use spells that only a few dragons were physically and mentally able to use. Furthermore how would the dragons react to a human trying to learn the spells that so many of them were incapable of doing, and how would they feel if he succeeded? This was a very touchy subject, but Nule soon decided that if he were to succeed he would never use the spells to harm dragons, and if he did not succeed, then there was no harm in trying, and learning as much as he could about the dragons.

With steady hands Nule opened the book to the first page and began to read. His eyes surfed over the runes slower than they would have if he were reading his own language; however Nule found that each time he read a new book his speed was quickly increasing, as he began to recognize the intricate swirls and jagged turns of each rune. The first few pages explained the basics of magic, and how the energy used in magic came from the ancestors, and is drained from the spiritual energy which is provided to dragons through the green gems.

Nule poured himself over the book, and studied the words extensively, even rereading a section when he thought he had forgotten something. The book covered some of the most basic of spells, some of which seemed easy, one of which was simply conjuring up a small ball of light. However when Nule tried to do as the book instructed he found that it did not work. Nule however was not distraught over this, he had never expected to succeed on his first try, and so he simply continued to read on in the book, as he memorized the spells inside.

Nule had been forced to stop reading on several times, as his turn to watch The Iron Fist, arrived, and while he took great care to notice what was happening, another part of his mind would often branch off from his current thoughts and his new thoughts would play in the background of his mind all questioning ways to perform each spell, and how best to go about trying them. When however his time came to again take a break, Nule would go back to his book, and divulge himself into the pages as he learned more about magic.

When at last the light had faded beyond his ability to see, Nule reluctantly put away his book and returned to the others to help watch The Iron Fist. The shop had seen a considerable amount of activity, but none of which seemed suspicious, enough to spark an interest. The three waited for about half an hour, when at last The Iron Fist closed down for the night, Nule, Sven, and Sarah followed him a little ways, always mindful of their surroundings.

When the at last came to a small hut and no one seemed to be around, the three made their move. With quick yet silent steps the three rushed towards the man and stopped him from entering his house.

"We'd like a word with you sir." Sven said his voice at a threatening level. The man instantly froze in his place, Nule noticed his hand move away from the door and to his belt.

Nule instantly motioned to Sven, who instantly pulled out a dagger before the man could reach his and placed the small blade on the man's arms warning him of any sudden movements, instantly the man stiffened up as he removed his hand from his belt.

"Ya'll are lucky there's more than one of ya's, you'd been lying on that ground bleeding out your throat if I ever got the chance." The man replied with a southern accent as he spat on the ground.

"Two days ago, someone wanted to buy metal ingots from you, the kind used to make dragon armor. What do you know about him?" Nule asked as he kept his voice low and away from its normal tone to fool the man of his real identity.

"I don't know nothing about him, cept the fact that he was really disappointed to not get what he came for. Why you so interested in one of my customers?" The man asked now getting suspicious.

Nule however had planned a story beforehand just in case this question came up, luckily for him he seemed to always be prepared for any eventuality.

"Few years ago, a large sum of money came up missing, from _my_ house, now I want it back, and I won't hesitate to use force to get what's rightfully mine." Nule said, making it sound as if he was getting angry just by reciting the false events.

There was a long silence as the man turned the thoughts over in his head for a moment, before coming to a conclusion.

"What do I get for helping ya's, find him." The man inquired sounding hopeful.

"Well for starters, I won't cut your tongue out, but if you help me I will give you a small cash reward." Nule replied hinting at something larger.

"How much will ya's give me?"

"It all depends on how much information you give me, and how reliable that information is, now start talking." Again the man stopped to weigh his options; however he must have decided it was in his best interest to part with what Nule wanted.

"He's a military man, probably Marines, clearly a veteran." The man said with a sigh in his voice. Nule already knew the man was in the military. The man's information so far was old news and starting to show more and more signs of leading to a dead end, however he played along with the man for the time being.

"How can tell, what makes you so sure?"

"My old man was in the military, when he came home he kept himself in good shape, and always walked around with an air of victory, like he thought he could take on any man who challenged him to a fight. He carried himself with pride and so did the man your talking bout, trust me I know military men." The man explained.

"Where does he stay?" Nule asked, though he knew the man was not likely to know, however he had to ask just to make sure.

"Don't know, but if it helps I got a name for ya's, he called himself John Hammocks." The man said sounding confident that he had given Nule so very good information.

The man was right. This was good information, and it confirmed Nule's suspicions. The specter he had followed today had infarct been the remaining memory of John, which meant that John was still loyal to the military. This presented a problem for Nule, if he were to confront John openly, about what was happening, then there was no doubt in his mind that John would reveal to Sven and Sarah about his past, of being a military man himself, which would seriously undermine his authority as the leader of their unofficial group. Nule could not have them questioning his loyalty to their cause, but neither could he allow John to continue to pave the path of distrust among the dragons and the humans, a choice would seem have to be made and Nule knew it full well what could happen if he chose wrong.

Nule showed no signs that he was surprised or angry at the bit of information but truly, inside he was screaming his frustration.

"Now listen here, this is what your going to do for us, you're going to keep your eyes open, and when you see him again, try to get in close with him. Next time he comes in for black steel, or any other type metal of interest, you let us know." Nule said as he began to walk away, leaving the man no choice but to do as he said.

Sven, and Sarah quickly followed, not letting the man see their faces, and so as to keep themselves anonymous.

Once the man realized he no longer had a blade to his throat, he quickly pulled out his own blade and turned around, only to see that Nule, and Sven had disappeared. The man had no clue that Sarah had ever been there, due to her common silence.

**00000**

**First off I would like to apologize for taking so long to post this chapter; I had the misfortune of being stuck in situations of which I could not get to a computer. As you will notice my chapters are getting longer, and I have grown acquainted with putting in great detail, however there is always room for improvement. As always please leave a review, telling if you love the story, hate the story, or just plain can't get enough of the story.**

**On a side note I will not be able to do a lot of writing due to the fact that I will be moving to an area that does not have a library close by, and do not have enough money to buy a computer sorry.**


	12. Spells

**Authors Note: This chapter is going to revolve around magic, yes magic is going to be a part of the story, however I am going to keep what I intent to do with it a secret for the time being, I plan to have dragons show up in this chapter, but If I can't fit it in I will do it in the next chapter, I have decided to do this because this is a Spyro Fan fiction, and dragons have only shown up twice, maybe three times, so I want to change that, I don't want the story to revolve around just humans, that takes the fun out of a Spyro fanfiction.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own any of the spyro characters, such as Spyro Cynder, and so on. I do however own Nule, Sven, and Sarah.**

**00000**

**Spells**

Nule, Sven, and Sarah had found themselves a place to rest of the night, while hiding the clothing they wore, so that no one would remember them wearing the clothing in case they were seen doing in any bit of suspicious activity. The inn that Nule had chosen for them to stay in was fairly nice, not to expensive, but not so cheap that they would be sleeping in unsanitary conditions. The cost of which Nule had paid for from his own stash of coin he kept hidden in his boot. The inn w as set up which in a way that most closely resembled a motel from earth. The rooms to the inn were on a large area of land, and the inn formed a kind of wall leaving a large area in the middle open to benches and a fountain. The only way to get to the rooms was to pass through a doorway that led to the enclosed area, where all the doors to each room were. Each room was just like that of a motel, one room with a small area closed off for using the bathroom.

Nule had bought the only two rooms left, and gave one for Sven, and Sarah to share, however Nule had the misfortune to choose the room with a thin wall, and could hear the activities of Sven, and Sarah. Nule quickly put their sounds out of mind and returned to his and continued to read by candle light.

Nule, who was reading through the book at a fast rate, was able to study the words at a single glance and could instantly put an image, or clear understanding to a word or phrase, and had decided that it had come time to actually put some effort into his attempts to use magic.

Nule started out with the first spell in the book, a simple lighting spell that would light a candle. The book had clearly told him that he should get an unlit candle and place it a few feet away, then visualize a flame suddenly appearing at the wick, and lighting the room, all the while he had to try and concentrate the energy that was his body to his hands.

Nule had no idea how he was to concentrate the energy in his body to his hands or even how to detect the energy inside of him, if there was any at all, so instead he simple concentrated on his hands while trying to visualize the flame sparking to life at the wick of the candle. His first few tries as he expected had ended with complete failure, Nule had not even managed to make a spark appear on the wick. This did not discourage him however, and he continued working at his task. It was easy to concentrate, Nule had to concentrated when he was training, and so it came naturally to him after five years of training. Nule tried for an hour or so, before snapping his fingers at his failure.

Nule saw a flash out of the corner of his eye, and turned to look at the candle. The wick of the candle was slightly smoking, but had not yet caught on fire. Nule hesitantly snapped his fingers again, yet nothing happened. Nule quickly realizing he had stopped concentrating tried again, his minds focused on his hands and visualized the candle lit, before snapping his fingers again, more enthusiastic.

A small fire lit itself at the wick, and fought for life, for a few seconds before it grew to a respectable size and burned brightly. Nule looked at his hands for a moment then back at the fire, before noticing something strange. The air didn't feel right; it felt thin and slightly hard to breath as if the air had been thinned. Something Nule had read in the book sparked to the front of his mind. _"The energy which is used to do magic is the same energy which is given to us to use our elemental abilities, and is thus drained in the same way as if we were using our elemental abilities. Further more we must learn to control the amount of energy we put into the magic that is worked, too little and the spell with suck the energy out of the surrounding area to compensate for missing energy, and to much will cause the air to be filled with the excess energy. This will cause the excess energy to find the closest living thing and enter it, or it will cause the spell you have casted to be more powerful than intended and will kill someone if one does not take extreme caution."_

Nule let the words wash over his mind again and again, so as to let them sink in. Was that why the air was so hard to breath, had he not put enough energy into his spell, causing it to become hard to breath, and how was he to know how much energy was required to properly perform a spell. This was all hard to comprehend. What if he managed to learn all these spell but not how to properly perform them, he might end up hurting someone, and what was worse was what would he do with this new found ability, would he teach it to Sven and Sarah, or would he keep it to himself, after all he couldn't make this decision lightly, not without having severe consequences, he had to tread on this carefully or risk ruining everything.

Nule had decided that he would teach Sven and Sarah how to use spells, after he had mastered them, and perform them without endangering them or anyone else, but before he did any of that he would learn some more spells and perform them using tact of trail by error to master them.

Nule wanted to see how far he could push himself in using magic, and so decided to put out the first candle he had been using for reading light and his practice candle. Once he was certain both candles were standing side by side, Nule again cleared his mind and visualized both candles with fire sparking at the wick, this time focusing more energy into his hands. With a quick snap of his finger both candles instantly sparked to life. Nule instantly felt himself weaken for a moment before the feeling disappeared, however there was a slight difference, Nule found that it was no longer harder to breath; the air had thickened to a reasonable amount. This caught Nule off, It was obvious he had used to much energy this time, and since that was the case he had felt weakened, but the energy finding no other source of life had returned to Nule., but why did the air suddenly become thicker? Nule had a theory as to why it had happened.

Nule's first try had ended with him using to little energy which resulted in the energy in the air to be sucked up to fuel his first spell, but when Nule used the spell a second time, trying it with two candles, the extra energy not used in the spell had returned to him, but not before restoring the damage that Nule had done. The result was the atmosphere in the room returning to normal.

Nule found this intriguing, but pushed it from his mind as he blew out the candles again and tried a third time to light the candles. When Nule snapped his fingers again, while making sure to lessen the energy in his hands to a smaller degree, the candles lit for a third time brightening the room. Nule checked the air and found he could breath easily, and he had not felt any bit weakened, so he must have preformed the spell perfectly, or as close to perfect as he could get. This would be a useful spell to remember.

Nule quickly returned to the book and read the next spell, which appeared to be a spell for putting out a light. Nule read over the spell and quickly learned that he had to visualize the fire going out, He also read a fairly interesting point in the book, which he reread. _"The spell for which to put out a light requires less energy than the spell for lighting a candle, however it is more so difficult because if not properly done, it can put out the light of all fires around you, this is hard to control as the spell requires more energy with the more light you wish to disperse, in theory the brighter the light that you wish to put out, the more energy you will have to put into your spell to make it work."_

Nule smiled, if putting out a flame took less energy, then this would be an easy task, however the more tricky part would be to put out the certain candles without putting them all out. Nule decided that he would only practice with a single lit candle, but once he was sure he could do the spell properly, then he would move on to the more complex version of the spell.

Nule began to practice with the one candle and found that it was considerably easy, Nule had managed put the right amount of energy into the spell however it did take him several tries to actually do the spell, but Nule didn't mind he was learning, and in the years that passed, Nule had slowly begun to like learning, it was a passion with him, and more often or not he would find he had a strong yen to go and grab a book and read from its pages for hours on end.

Nule did the spell again several more times, before he was confident that he had gotten the hold of doing the spell, with a better success rate than a failed rate. Nule grabbed two more candles and placed them on the table beside the first and quickly lit them with the first spell, with that done Nule decided that he would only try to put out two candles at a time, and then putting out all three.

Nule again put out one as a test to make sure he had not suddenly lost this skill, before he visualized two unlit candles and concentrated the energy in his hands. Nule snapped his finger, and two lights flickered for a moment before going out, Nule sighed the candles were supposed to go out instantly, but instead they had flickered, and what was worse, was the room felt a degree or so colder. Nule went to try again, when suddenly there was a knock at his door.

Nule quickly turned around and went to the door and cracked it open just enough to fit his head through. Standing on the other side of the door was the owner of the inn; she was a small plump woman with rosy red cheeks. She had short brown hair piercing brown eyes and a stern look on her face.

"What are you doing in here?" She asked in a bewildered and slightly scared voice.

"What do you mean; I am not doing anything except reading." Nule said. Technically Nule had not lied, for he was in fact reading though, that was not all he was doing.

"You're reading my ass!" she said as she tried to get a view of the inside of the room. "I've been watching the light in your room go on and off for the past ten minutes, now I want to know what you're doing in this room." She said sternly.

Nule needed to get rid her, so he could practice more, but how was he going to do that? Suddenly an idea came to Nule and he opened the door wide as he thought up a quick lie.

"I really am reading, but you see every time I get to a good part, a draft comes through and blows my candle out, I tried to set up more but they all keep going out." Nule said as he visualized and concentrated, before snapping his fingers lightly causing the flame on the last candle to go out, as if emphasizing his point."

"You see." Nule said as he opened the door to let her inside. The energy that had been sucked from the air created a nice little breeze which made it seem colder and made the possibility of the candles being blown out.

The owner entered the room and felt the cold, and suddenly looked at Nule with a look of embarrassment.

"Sorry to bother you sir, it was my mistake." The owner said as she shuffled out of the room.

"It's quite alright." Nule said kindly, before shutting the door gently, and lighting the candles again.

Nule surveyed the room for a few minutes before he decided that he would head in for the night, after all he had work to do tomorrow, he had to find out what had happened to John and stop the military before they destroyed this world.

**00000**

The next day Nule, Sven and Sarah got up early that day and left while leaving a small tip for the owner of the inn. They quickly set off, and went to the market place, to try and find any hint of wrong doing on the behalf of the military, but found that nothing of interest was turning up, or at least nothing they could detect. They spent the first hour or so, walking around the market as if they were regular customers, but quickly moved on while keeping their eyes open.

It was still dark out, and the only source of lit came from street lamps that were placed every twenty feet or so to keep as much dark away as possible. Nule was looking at a rack of spices, but was looking uninterested, and so stood up and turned around to move to the next shop when he noticed someone quickly dodging from sight. Nule was instantly on alert, but showed no distress, but took a casual look around the market as if looking for his next shop. Nule quickly saw a store which was across from where the person was hiding. Luck, it seemed was on his side, as the shop had a considerable amount of mirrors.

"Hey Sarah, how about we check out that mirror shop, they might have something you want, I'll pay." Nule said casually as he indicated the shop he was talking about.

Sven and Sarah looked at him, but before they could say anything Nule was already heading for the shop, leaving them no choice but to follow. When they caught up with him Nule had already asked to owner a pretty blonde if she had anything in the back, she quickly rushed to the back of the store to search for something a look of glee on her face.

"Nule, what's gotten into you, were supposed to be looking for military activity." Sven said, Nule quickly shushed him, and pointed to a large oval mirror slightly to his right.

"That's a lovely mirror isn't it?" Nule asked his tone slightly incorrect for what he usually did, which caused Sven and Sarah to move in his place and look at the mirror

At first they only noticed the mirror and their reflections, but suddenly in the background of the reflection something moved causing them to readjust their eyes to look at it. Instantly they saw, a man peeking out from a corner watching them. Instantly Sven and Sarah understood what Nule was doing, and went along with it.

"It's alright, but I kind of like this one better." Sarah said as she pointed at a mirror with a wooden backboard the wood of which was carved into swirls, and painted in silver and gold.

"Look guys a mirror is a mirror, just get one and let's go." Sven said sounding board. Occasionally he would search the other mirrors searching for any other followers.

Just then the women came back from the back of the store carrying a closed box. She suddenly opened it at the sight of Nule to reveal a pendulum hanging from a gold chain, the center of which had a red gem inside of it, however this was not a ruby, this was slightly prettier, and it seemed to glow in the dim light, like energy coursed through it.

"Oh that's pretty, I'm sure she'll love it, there's just one problem, how much is it?" Nule asked sounding excited and slightly nervous at the same time.

"Twenty gold pieces." She said sounding perky.

Nule put twenty cold coins in her hand looking reluctant to do so, but smiling at his purchase, before walking away from the shop and placing the box in an inside pocket hidden away from view. once they were far enough away Sarah asked.

"Why did you buy that thing?"

"I needed a reason to get closer to the mirrors, and I needed that women to leave us long enough to show you are tail." Nule commented, without turning his head.

The three continued their patrol around the market, when suddenly Nule saw a sudden turn up ahead, without hesitation Nule slightly altered his path and headed for it, Sven and Sarah taking his lead. Nule knew their tail would follow, and it was essential to lose him, So Nule concentrated and just as their tail rounded the corner, Nule snapped his fingers softly, causing all the surrounding lights to extinguish themselves.

The surrounding area was immediately coated in darkness, and Nule pulled on the arms of Sven, and Sarah, leading them in the right direction as the quickly lost their tail. The three however didn't slow down. They wanted to get as far away from their tail as possible, it was important that they not be followed. They only stopped when they made it to the other side of Dauntless, which was the residential area.

"So what do we do now?" Sarah asked in breaths.

"Well the first thing we should do, is go to The Iron Fist, and have a talk with the owner. It's strange isn't it, I mean we talk with him last night, and now we have someone tailing us, I say we show him we don't like being followed." Sven said as he wrenched his hands, forcing himself not to grab his blades.

"That's not a bad idea, but we need a plan first, we can't go about showing are faces when conducting business, otherwise we end up scaring off our target." Nule said deep in thought.

"Well what would you have us do, we can't go about the streets like this, without being followed, and we can't change, otherwise people will see our faces, and when we ask to many questions, they know who to look for."

"I might have an idea." Sarah said a little too quietly.

"Well I'm open to suggestions, Nule?" Sven asked.

"Let's hear it then, what's your plan?" Nule said a sounding defeated.

"Well we have one of us, go to the Iron fist, and lure the owner away to a quite place, then have to other two follow and do a little interrogation, the first person can look, as normal as any other person on the streets, while the other two can stay as they are, this way if our follower finds us again, one of us will be in the clear to get rid of him." Sarah explained.

Nule and Sven looked at Sarah for a moment, before Nule came to a quick decision.

"Okay I will go to The Iron Fist and see if my swords done, if it is, I'll lure him away and then you can have a little chat with him." Nule said as he quickly looked around for anyone who might be watching or listening. When he was fairly sure no one was around he removed his coat, and anything else that might make his stand out, and headed back towards the Iron Fist.

Nule had kept his satchel. Reaching inside Nule pulled out the book of spells and began to leaf through the pages as he looked for combat based spells, they would undoubtedly come in handy later on. Nule stopped at a page, which focused on elemental abilities. The book explained that while elemental powers were easy to use, they were in fact a form of spell, and that with the right amount of training, a dragon could learn to use another elemental ability besides his own, however to do so would cause great discomfort and if pushed to far could kill the dragon attempting to use another element.

The book also explained that since the strength of an elemental attack depended on the amount of power put into the spell, it did not require a certain amount of energy to use, but it also warned that the stronger the spell, the more likely it would harm the caster, and diligence was always imperative.

Nule did as the book instructed, as he decided he would try his hand, (so to speak) at conjuring a fire ball, while checking to make sure no one was around to see, Nule successfully made fire appear in his hand. The fire was warm, but did not seem to burn his skin, which led Nule to believe that the spells had been created to protect the person casting them. Nule soon began to play around with the fire, and increased and decreased the power of the fire, which led him to discover that the energy was not used up until after the spell had been completed, and that the stronger the flame became the hotter the flame got. Nule had accidentally scorched his hand, once and decided that to stop fooling around. With that in mind Nule quickly closed his hand and released the energy trapped inside the flames.

Today was a good to know how to use magic.

**00000**

**Ok so there you go. A little side note, I have moved. Since I did most of my typing at my local library, the chapters will be coming at a slower pace, sorry, but I will try to get a computer of my own.**


	13. Finding John

**First off I would like to say I am so sorry for taking so long to write this chapter. I realize so of you may have been waiting at your computers day and night, just waiting for me to post the next chapter. The reason it has taken me so long to post this chapter, is because I have started to do track, and don't have enough time to get to the library, which I know I said I would not be near one, turns out I was wrong, also This chapter is lacking a bit sorry for that.**

**I do not own any of the Spyro cannon characters I only own mine.**

**00000**

**Finding John**

Nule had made it to The Iron fist without being tailed; the day was still young as most of the people at Dauntless were still asleep at home. Nule slowly approached, the Iron Fist, and saw the owner was working today. _"Good"_ thought Nule

A casual look around told Nule that he was still in the clear. Nule walked up to the counter, which immediately caught the owner's eye. as the owner turned to greet his customer, he suddenly remembered Nule's face, and went into the back, for a short moment, before returning, a few seconds later, with a long cloth covering, what Nule had no doubt was his sword.

"I worked all day on it. It's a good weapon, I promise you." The owner said as he, unwrapped the sword.

The sword had been treated so that the blade was a fiery orange and red tint, which greatly resembled a large flame, and the blade looked like something you would have seen off of a fantasy movie. The blade looked somewhat like an elf blade. it was long and thin. The hilt was curved slightly outward from where the sharp point of the blade was, and was decorated various lines and what Nule unmistakably realized was the draconic symbol for peace. Nule found this funny, but did not

The swords that Nule had seen which were crafted to resemble the blades seen in movies and, depicted in books, were poorly made, and would more than likely come loose, with a single swing, but this sword, looked to be made properly, of course the only way to ever really know was to test the weapon out, but Nule didn't really care about the weapon, he was more concerned with getting the owner away from everyone.

Nule mocked both shock, and joy as he picked up the sword, and saw laying next to it the sheath. The sheath was made of the highest quality leather that was available in the dragon realms (Dragon scales which had been boiled in very hot water, which made it softer and easier to craft together), and had a piece of metal that surrounded the opening of the sheath. Nule picked up it up and sheathed the sword. Instantly the sound of metal, scraping against metal sounded and Nule looked up at the owner.

"The blade is self sharpening, so long as you have the sheath, and I took the liberty of making the blade out of sparkling steel." The owner said, causing Nule to suddenly look up with surprise.

Sparkling steel was a very rare, type of metal, which was never present on earth. Sparkling steel was an amazing combination of iron and diamond, which could only be found near volcanic mountains were Iron and diamond were in abundance. The discovery of sparkling steel was by far an accident. A weapons crafter had taken out the impurities of iron, and crafted swords out of the resulting steel. Once crafted he discovered that the blades sparkled like diamonds, and later had it examined where he discovered, the steel had a combined structure of both diamond and steel.

Due to the fact that the only volcano that had large deposits of sparkling steel ore, was an unstable mountain called Boyzitbig, the ore to produce sparkling steel was very hard to come by, since life on the volcanic island know as Munitions forge, was a struggle not even the people of Dauntless were not up to.

"Before I buy it, I want to see how well it works." Nule said, with real interest in his voice. It was one thing to see a sparkling steel sword, and quite another to possibly own one, however the fact that the blade was made of sparkling steel, made Nule wary, this was one of the metals that was on his list of things to watch out for, and sparkling steel was a very hard metal to work. Somehow the atoms of both steel, and diamond had fused creating a diamond hard piece of metal, however if not properly crafted, the heat from the forge could cause the two components to split and the, cause fractures within the blade, making it a very poor, and weak weapon.

"I have a training area, where you can swing it around." The man said, as he walked out of his store, and led Nule to the back of his property. In the back was a large open area, with wooden dummies set up on pikes.

Nule quickly unsheathed his new blade, and approached the nearest dummy. Nule quickly got in stance with his right foot in front, and his left foot, in back. Nule quickly moved his right foot behind his left foot, while turning on the left foot, and spinning as he flicked his wrist in a diagonally upward swing. As the blade passed through the air. there was a distinctive twinkling sound which was a common way to tell if a blade was made of sparkling steel, however when the blade struck the wood, it changed to a loud and nasty cutting sound. The blade lodged itself a five inches in the wood.

Nule hesitantly let the hilt go and the blade stayed in the same position Nule had it in. Nule grabbed the hilt and gave a small tug, which seemed to release the blade from the wooden dummy, and returned it to its proper sheath.

"So how much do I owe you?" Nule asked begrudgingly, a blade as find as this one, required great detail to work, which meant the price would be high, something Nule would not be able to afford.

"No charge, it's like I told you yesterday, I know a military man when I see one." The man said as he turned to leave.

"I'm sorry I don't understand?" Nule said, as confusion began to set in.

"It's alright kid, you don't have to play dumb with me, there's no one around." The man said, before looking Nule over. "You haven't been enlisted very long have you? well let me fill ya in kid, your military made a deal with me, they gave me the money I needed to start my shop, and in return I supply all their weapons, and bullets." Said the owner as he turned to leave.

Suddenly shrill and mocking laughter broke on across the small yard.

"You old fool!" Said Sven as he jumped down from the top of the Iron Fist Nule turned to him, thankfully it was away from the owner of the forge, so he could not see Nules face. Nule gave Sven an angry look. He had not waited for Nules signal.

"Even I can see he isn't military, look at him, he to scrawny, and short, however I would be delighted to hear more about the militaries activities, as well as why we were being followed today, would make a great story." Sven said as he advanced on the owner. As Sven passed Nule he gave a small smirk, and said in a firm voice, "Get out of here kid, I'm sure our friend here won't mind if I pay for you."

Nule nodded and quickly fled as if he were in terror. he had to admit, Sven had improvised, and it seemed to have fooled the owner, as he gave a confused cry, "Not military?" Nule had to give Sven a pat on the back later, it seemed he was not full of just brute strength as Nule had originally thought, but was in fact capable of advanced planning.

Once out of sight of the owner, Nule, gave a quick sweep of the shops around him were completely empty. Nule knew this would not last long. The sun was quickly rising, chasing away the shadows that would have protected. On impulse, Nule quickly ducked inside of the shop, and began to search through the drawers. After a few minutes of searching, Nule soon became frantic. He was leafing through papers with little care for their order. After what felt like ages, Nule finally found the paper that he was looking for. Nule quickly grabbed it, and replaced the papers in their proper order in an unorganized manner. Nule went to leave but suddenly a ray of sunlight peeked through shop and the store was showered in a sparkling shimmering light.

Nule quickly turned around and saw three steel ingots, however due to the sunlight reflecting off of the ingots; it revealed them to be sparkling steel. Nule was hesitant, but quickly decided that the more he took from the owner the less harm he could do, to the dragons and the other species that lived here. Nule quickly scooped the three Ingots and left the shop as he stashed his findings away in his satchel.

**00000**

Nule, Sven, and Sarah had met outside of Dauntless shortly after their interrogation, where Sven and Sarah told Nule what they had found out from the shop owner.

It turned out that Dauntless had been formed by the military, as a safe haven for their actions. The Military had formed a sort of alliance with all the owners of a forge in Dauntless, they would forge weapons for the military, and in return the military would provide economical prosperity, unfortunately the ones directly working at the forges had no idea where the military kept their base of operations, which again led them into a dead end, and there was no way they could get any more from the owner of the Iron Fist, because he had taken his life just a few short minutes after they had left.

Nule was beginning to get aggravated, he had hoped for this chance to do something useful and all he was coming up with was stupid forge owners, and John. John? How did he fit into all this, obviously he was still a part of the military, but how was it possible for John to just suddenly disappear, things weren't adding up, and they were running out of time, at any minute the military could attack again, if they hadn't done so already.

Nule shook his head in frustration. For the first time since he came to this world he had absolutely ideal where he was suppose to go from here. He was confused and uncertain.

"IF someone's got an idea, now would be the time to say it out loud." Nule said as he hung his head.

"Giving up already? I thought you were supposed to be the leader with all the answers." Called a voice from up above.

All three suddenly looked up to see a two three forms descending from the sky. Once they landed Nule saw that they were three fully grown dragons. The first was a male dragon, who had purple scales, with a golden underbelly, two golden orange horns, a spade shaped tail blade and the deepest purple eyes, which radiated with compassion, boldness, strength, and a fierce sense of duty. The second dragon, which was also a male, had deep black scales, with a pale purple, almost pink underbelly, three white horns. He had a tail blade shaped like a curved sword, and emerald green eyes, which held, cold calculating bitterness, anger, strength and something else, which Nule could hardly make out. The last of the three dragons was a black female. She too had deep black scales, but had a maroon red underbelly, six horns, three on each side, which curved backwards, and a tail blade shaped like a scythe. She unlike the second male, had a kinder, gentler look in her eyes, yet Nule could see the fierce beast inside, which would do anything to fight off its foe.

Nule looked at the first two dragons, as recognition settled in. The first was the purple dragon of legend, Spyro, the Second was Demos, the first dragon Nule had ever seen up close, however when his gaze turned onto the female, his mind drew a blank, he had never seen this dragon before, but despite the species difference, Nule Could feel a small bit of attraction to her, however he simply pushed this away, and returned his gaze to Spyro and Demos.

"What are you doing here?" Sarah asked, Sarah had only on a few occasions saw a dragon up close, but it was clear she would always be stunned by their beauty.

"The guardians got your message and thought you could use some back up, so they sent us." Spyro replied, his body language as always light and happy.

"This poses a big problem." Nule thought out loud.

"How so?" Sven asked, it was unclear to him why having three large dragons on their side was a problem. "They can help use look for your mystery man."

"Three large dragons, could attract a lot of attention, from the wrong people, and besides the Military killed a dragon, whether on accident or on purpose, we still should be careful." it was clear Nule was thinking. The dragons could help them greatly, yet they could also hinder them as well, which would cause the military to leave, or worse attack.

"You don't think we're capable of handling ourselves?" Demos asked. For a brief moment his eyes flashed a crimson red, before returning to emerald green.

in response Nule reached into his satchel and pulled out one of the sparkling steel ingots and showed it to the three dragons.

"Not when the enemy is using bullets made out of this." Nule replied as he turned the ingot in the sun letting the steel reflect the light.

"Sparkling Steel? How did they get that?" The female dragon asked.

"I'm sorry who are you?" Sven asked apprehension in his voice.

"This is my mate, Cynder." Said Spyro as he eyed Sven curiously trying to determine something about the human.

"And my sister." commented Demos, in a sour tone.

"Can we please get back on track." Nule said as aggravation crept into his voice.

"I agree, we can't lose focus, so where did you get that?" Spyro asked, he to showing signs of tension.

Nule told the three dragons how they had learned of the unidentified metals being sold at a forge, and how they had tracked down the blacksmith and interrogated him, and forced his little plan with the military out of him. Nule also showed them his sword, and the manuscript he had taken, which they had quickly discovered was a guide to crafting sparkling silver into a large varieties of shapes and sizes. The dragons all the while listened patiently, however Demos seemed to be less enthusiastic about working with humans, as he glared, at them all the while.

"So what's our course of action?" Cynder inquired, looking at Spyro.

"That's up to Nule, we're just here as back up, besides, like he said, we do pose a serious problem, so our best bet would to stay out of sight for awhile." Spyro said as he looked to Cynder with a silent sorry.

"I think the best thing we can do is try to figure out where our main suspect went." Nule replied to Cynders question.

"What do you mean 'where he went,' are you saying you lost him." Demos said, mocking in his voice.

"it is hard to follow a man who disappears into thin air." Sven said defensively. it was clear to Nule that Sven did not like Demos's condescending tone.

"What do you mean, he just vanished?" Cynder asked clearly confused by the turn of events.

Nule explained to them about John jumping off the cliff, and not leaving any splash in the water below. This seemed to intrigue and confuse them all however, Demos's eyes suddenly lit up as if he remembered something very important. Nule noticed the look in his eyes, however he could not, with great confidence, say that they were exited, however Nule did not have to wonder for very long at what lurked in the black dragons eyes.

"Did you check the cliff's face?" Demos said as he smirked at the humans.

"What?" asked Sven, a little anger in his voice, but also curiosity.

"The cliff is just on the edge of the ancient grove, right?" Demos asked as his grin grew wider, which made Sven seethed with anger, it was clear, he didn't like the way the dragon acted like he knew something they didn't.

"yes, why do you ask?" Nule replied, as he held his hand out as Sven attempted to move towards Demos.

"Well I know for a fact, that there's and underground system of tunnels. It's where the grumbles used to live, until Malefor forced them out, and made them work for him." Demos said smugly, it was clear he loved to see the humans a step behind him.

The look Nule gave Demos was of pure astonishment. He had never thought of underground tunnels. Yet as he pondered over the possibility, doubt crept into thoughts. He quickly examined the faces of Spyro and Cynder and saw that they too were amazed to hear this news. It became quite clear that this was not well known information, so how did Demos know about it and they didn't,, and why did he act like he was better than the human race. True his kind was first to live in this world, but Nule had done nothing wrong to Demos or any of the dragons that he had encountered; Nule however did take in the fact that the humans were the first to draw blood, and unfortunately it had been dragon blood, so maybe he felt that all humans were bad. Whatever the reason for Demos's behavior, Nule could not pass up the opportunity to get the answers he so desperately needed.

"Will you show us where these tunnels are?" Nule asked politely. He didn't want to show his aggravation least Demos were reluctant to help.

"Of course I will, someone has to make sure you stop the coming war, even if it would be better suited for us dragons to take care of things." He replied a little too smugly.

Nule's eyes were suddenly attracted to a movement behind the dragons, however before he could see what it was it had disappeared, and Demos had given a surprised grunt, before quickly glaring at Cynder, who glared back just as equally mad as Demos was. The two held their gaze for a few moments, which included both of their eyes turning red, before Demos looked away from her, with his head slightly lowered, in what Nule could only interoperate as shame.

It quickly occurred to Nule that Cynder had hit Demos with her tail, and the two had some sort of meaningful glance. Nule did not ponder their actions for long, he had a job to do. With a quick decision Nule returned his gaze to Demos.

"Lead us please." Nule said, trying his best to be polite about it.

**00000**

**So there you have it. To be honest I am not feeling to confident in my writing skills as I once had thought. I find that I have lost inspiration, but rest assured I will finish this story if it kills me.**

**as always please read and review, and don't be afraid to put in some helpful suggestions, I always appreciate that, because your opinion does matter.**


	14. Into the dark

**I DO NOT own any of the Spyro characters, I only own my own, any are welcomed to use them so long as you ask me and give credit, thank you.**

**00000**

**Into the Dark**

The dragons had avoided flying, so as not to be seen, and the six walked around Dauntless, for the same reason. They walked most of the way in silence, with Demos leading the way. Spyro and Cynder were a few feet behind, and the three humans bringing up the rear, However for some reason Spyro turned his head and called to Nule. Nule suspecting he wanted to talk about strategy, jogged up to meet the two dragons.

"I want to apologize for the way my brothers been acting." Came Cynders voice, it was clear she was embarrassed. This came to a surprise to Nule, he had suspected battle plans, and courses of action, instead he found an apologetic dragon embarrassed by something small and inconvenient.

"I..uh... No don't worry about it, there are always going to be people who are bitter." Nule replied his voice staying neutral as he picked his words carefully, in truth Nule wanted to tell them how much he disliked Demos, but he had learned control over these feelings when in the military.

"It's not that he's bitter, it's just he's had some bad experiences, which have made him...reluctant to humans." Cynder replied also choosing her words carefully, she did not want to give away anything that Demos did not want people to know, however this confused Nule to an extreme

If someone was reluctant to warm up to a certain group of people, then it was a well known fact that they had had a bad experience with that group of people before, however Demos had been angry at Humans from the moment he had seen them. These actions left no room for any wrongs done to him, before the two species had meet. Cynders explanation left no room for sense, which in turn caused disbelief on Nule's part, however Nule did not take it personally, he understood that Cynder was just trying to make her brother look good, So Nule instead of calling her out on her lie, simply nodded and said that it was fine.

Nule dismissed himself and returned to Sven and Sarah, who looked a little curious about what had just happened. though they hadn't heard a single word, the urge to know what was said lurked within both of them.

"What was that about." Sven said, as he voiced both Sarah's , and his interest.

"Nothing, they were just apologizing for Demos." Nule replied, seeing no reason to lie.

"I don't like him." voiced Sven, his tone just as bitter as Demos's.

"I don't care, he is our ally for the moment, and we're not going to do anything to upset him." Even as Nule said it, he could feel his own discontent, boiling under his skin, but he pushed it away, as much as his disliked the situation, he needed Demos's help.

When they made it to the cliff, Demos went over to the edge and looked over, for a moment before turning around and nodding.

"It's right under our feet." Demos said, his face showing absolute certainty.

"Now all that's left is to find the door, and get inside." Sven said, his voice covered with sarcasm.

"I'm sure Demos, knows how to get inside." Nule commented. there had currently been no reason to mistrust Demos with something like this. If he lied, which was highly unlikely, he risked putting the entire dragon race in danger. it was not a matter of trusting his morals, but more of a matter of trusting his sense of direction.

"As a matter of fact, I do. All you have to do is, have a strong earth dragon stomp on the ground near the base of the cliff, it's that or either wait for someone on the inside to open the door." Demos stared at the humans, as if daring one of them to say otherwise.

With that said, Spyro Walked to the cliffs edge, and stomped his foot. Immediately, the heard the sound of rock grinding on rock. Nule, Sven and Sarah quickly rushed over and saw a part of the stone cliff wall jutting out, making a sort of slid into a large dark hole, which was big enough for two fully grown dragons slid down side, by side.

"So who wants to be the first to go into the creepy dark hole." Sven commented, as he moved closer to inspect the hole.

"Well go first." Spyro said as he readied himself to jump into the hole.

"If you see anyone, don't be afraid to kill them, I mean, it's either you or them, so it might be a good idea to keep yourself in mind." Sven said as casually as possible, yet still sounding harsh, which caused Nule to glare at him.

With that, the three dragons each jumped down one at a time. There was a brief moment of silence, before the sound of Spyro spitting fire could be heard, then a call up the hole.

"There's no one here." Came Cynders voice from the dark hole.

Nule looked down into the blackness below. he was unsure of what he should do, but at the current time, he found that there was really only one option, that he could choose from. Without hesitation, Nule jumped into the hole. His feet landed on the bottom of the rock slid, and instantly his feet slipped out from underneath him, causing him to fall backwards, and slid down head first. Despite the sudden turn of events, Nule did not scream or shout, or show any signs of fear, instead he placed his arms and legs out, as he tried to slow himself. The slick rock surface beneath him, was relatively smooth, and had little to no bumps or sudden jagged stalagmites. This was both a relief and a problem for Nule, with nothing to grab onto he could not right himself. Thankfully Nule did not need to right himself, as it turned out the slid, evened itself out just as it reached the bottom of the cave system.

When Nule reached the bottom, he took a moment to assess his situation. he quickly found that the cave he was in was pitch black, and slightly freezing. The only source of light, came from a small glow of the entrance of the hole he had just slid down, other than that, there was nothing to light his way.

"Spyro, can I get a little light in here, so I can know where everything is at." Nule called out, into the darkness.

"yea give me a second." Spyro replied, as he searched for Nule's voice, so as not to accidentally fry him.

a second later, the room was illuminated by orange flames. Spyro held the flame for ten seconds, before he let the fire die, however that was all Nule needed. They were currently in a small room, which eventually opened up into a much larger room, and system of cave tunnels and entry ways. Inside the larger rooms, Nule had seen various desks, and work stations, but the most peculiar thing, he had noticed, was the ceiling, had been covered with florescent light bulbs. This was a very odd thing to see. Light bulbs, hadn't worked from the moment humans had entered the world. Nule had quickly hypothesized that the Dragon Realms were so filled with magic, that it short circuited all electronic devices. Despite this bit of information, Nule still had the urge to flick on the light switch, no doubt from years of the common movements.

With this information in his mind, Nule made a little map inside of his head, as of recently he found that he could walk in the dark, simply by knowing where everything was, much like how a blind person memorized where everything was in his home, however Nule did not need a walking stick to help guide his way, for some reason, his mind was now able to take in account distance, and speed of walking, so that he could mentally picture everything that was in front of him, as if the lights had never gone out. it was a nifty ability to have as it would defiantly come in handy.

"Spyro one more time please, I want to check something." Nule called in spyro's direction.

Spyro said nothing, he simply did as Nule asked. again the room was filled with the orange light, and again Nule's eyes quickly searched the surrounding area. He looked on the walls all around until he saw, not but a few feet away from him, a panel of switches as white as snow sticking out of the wall. Just then Spyro stopped his breath, and the room again went dark, but Darius had already gotten what he needed. Walking over to the wall as a normal pace, Nule flicked a switch, expecting the lights to stay off.

The room they were in was suddenly alight with a bright white light, which emanated from the florescent light bulbs above them. Nule was instantly stunned, he had expected the lights to not work as everything that was electronic did, but there he was standing in a pool of white false light. Spyro, Cynder, and Demos were more frightened by the sudden burst of light that, they all took battle stance ready to attack anyone who suddenly popped out in front of them.

"Sven, Sarah get down here, you might want to see this." Nule called up the hole. a few seconds later and they two were sliding down into the cave. When they reached the bottom, it took them a few seconds to realize that the electric lights where working.

"whoa...who turned on the lights?" Sven asked comically, causing Sarah to elbow him in the ribs.

"Would someone mind filling us in on what's going on here, What are those lights." Cynder asked, confused, a slight growl in her voice.

"Dragons," Sven scoffed to himself. "They don't knew anything about use."

"Sven, shut up!" Nule demanded as he raised his voice, causing Sven to glower and seethed with anger. "Let me think for a moment, okay?" he said as he lowered his voice, Nule hated to show his frustration, he believed it showed signs of weakness, and he always wanted to appear cool and calm, so as not to cause panic among his comrades.

"Someone please tell me what's is going on now!" Cynder said, her anger now boiling to the top, Cynder hated to be ignored when she wanted to know something, she had learned to deal with her own races, intolerance of her, but she would not be treated like she was nothing, by the humans. Nule looked up at her and frowned seeing her anger, and felt a little guilty inside, however, he did not allow this to show.

" Those lights above you are created by, little tubes of glass filled with gases, one of which is mercury. the gases are then lit up by a small electrical current that is balanced by to metal wires inside of the glass." Demos said, exasperated, at particularly nothing.

All heads turned to Demos, at his explanation. Nule knew he was right, however it was uncertain as to how he knew something like that, the chances of dragons learning anything about old human objects were slim to none, yet Demos clearly knew more of the humans than he cared to mention.

"Yea but... how did you know that?" Nule asked, both intrigued and baffled. Both Spyro and Cynder looked at Demos, though they showed signs of pity and not of surprise, which caused Nule to wonder just how much did the dragons actually know about the humans.

"I heard some humans talking about how they missed their precious light bulbs." Demos said, quickly as he dismissed the question.

Nule was not fully convinced and which caused uncertainty in him, could he trust Demos, and why was he lying, whatever his reasons Nule didn't like it, however, He knew he had to put up with it for the time being. reluctantly swallowing his suspicions, Nule Spoke to Demos, in a calm and composed manner, not allowing his doubts creep into his voice.

"Since you know this place better than any of us do, would you please lead us to the room that would serve as a conference room?" Nule said, as he looked Demos in the eyes, trying his best to conceal his true feelings.

After a short pause Demos, nodded and took the lead, keeping every nerve in his body alert. Nule and the rest soon fell in behind him, all looking at a separate part of the cave, allowing for a full view. Demos led them through a series of complex series of tunnels, but as they moved farther into the tunnels, Nule could not help but feel a slightly nagging at the back of his head. There was something wrong here, they had been walking a full ten minutes, and no one seemed to have walked by, or sound an alarm of any kind. This deeply unnerved him, and he soon found himself voicing his concerns.

"Guys, something really wrong here, We haven't seen a single soul since we got here." Nule commented, his voice suspicious and on guard.

"I've been wondering that myself, I've been in plenty of situations to know, that the peace doesn't last long, when invading an enemies lair." Spyro said, a slight tang of worry creeping in his voice.

"Nule, maybe it would be better if you, check what's going on, I mean, what's the harm in just looking around, right?" Sarah said, as she pushed her way to his side, it was quite obvious, she was scared, and she desperately wanted, some small bit of comfort.

With a slight nod, Nule closed his eyes, and concentrated. Nule could clearly feel the remains of the past memories which inhabited this place, clearly something had happened recently, but Nule had expected this. This was probably a main corridor which men and women passed through regularly.

When Nule opened his eyes, he saw the remaining memories of men and women of every size and color, running up and down the passageway, all running into some room or other, or continuing further down the hall, however, a wave of sound washed over him, and Nule was slightly caught off guard, as the voices of the men and women assaulted his ears. The men and women were shouting and yelling, all their voices combining and becoming indistinct. Soon the sound became too much for Nule and he lost his concentration, as he released the memory. Both the figures and the sounds faded, leaving Nule looking shaken and disturbed.

Before Nule had only been able to see the revenants of the past, but for some reason Nule could now hear, what they were saying, this deeply unnerved him, could his abilities be increasing in power, and if so, what would this mean for him, certainly growing stronger, was a good thing, it would defiantly help to stop the military, but would there be side effects, would his abilities grow to the point where he had no control over them, and if so, how would he learn to cope with them, his brief experience just now, had overwhelmed him, and if he couldn't use his abilities, then tracking the movements of the Military would be much more difficult.

"What did you see?" asked Sven clearly unnerved, by Nules current state.

"Some things defiantly wrong, they were all rushing to get to rooms, it's like they knew we were coming, but we haven't seen anyone, also, it was strange, but…I could hear them, nothing distinctive but they all sounded worried." Nule said, as he drew himself together, taking on a calm composer, however, he still looked visibly uncertain.

"Can you try again and see if you can catch anything helpful?" Sarah asked trying to be helpful.

"What are you talking about?" Demos shouted. "You three are making no sense, there's nothing for him to see or hear, besides the rest of us!" the black dragon clearly thought the humans insane.

Nule quickly began to tell the dragons about his ability to see the past, Nule kept everything pretty simple but when he was finished, Demos stared at him with uncertainty.

"Listen we don't have time to waste on explanations, can we just do what we came here to do please?" Sven cut in before more could be said.

Nule nodded, Sven was right, now was not the time to get stuck in conversation. They needed to find out what had happened. Closing his eyes again Nule concentrated. Nule suddenly started to notice that he could feel a sort of energy which hung in the air, Nule could only describe it as the left over energy that the body expelled, when moving. Nule slowly and carefully breached into the energy, making sure not to go too far, so as not to be overwhelmed, by the sudden rush of sound that was sure to come.

As expected Nule heard the sound of voices, however, this time the voices were clearer, and not so loud. Opening his eyes, he saw a few people rushing in and out of rooms, each avoiding someone who Nule's limited concentration had not brought forward.

The men and women, who rushed in and out, didn't ware military clothing, although they keep themselves clean and well organized. They wore relatively loose clothing, however they did not hamper their ability to run or make quick movements.

"What about the bodies, Should we destroy them!" shouted a man, as he grabbed another man, stopping him in mid run.

"It doesn't matter, they probably already know, Just get the research and destroy it all!" the other man replied. Shaking himself lose of the first man's grip the second man ran off down the hallway.

The first man wasted no time, and quickly ran into a nearby room. With a wave of his hand Nule motioned for the others to follow him as he rushed into the room himself. When Nule entered the room the first thing he smelled was formaldehyde, and cleaning alcohol, however, the room was completely dark, and Nule was unable to see beyond the light that spilled in through the open door. With a quick look around Nule found a set of switches and flicked them on as well, the sight that quickly followed sickened Nule.

The room was large. Lying on the floor on sterile white sheets, where an assortment of dragons, each ranging in color and size. Nule instantly regretted telling his team to follow, as soon as the three dragons saw what the room contained, they instantly feel silent, so silent that the only thing to be heard was the sound, of angry breathing.

Nule did not have to look up to know that it was Demos breathing heavily; however, Nule did not know the full extent of Demos's anger. From the beginning Demos had mistrusted the humans, but it was clear he now hated the humans with a passion. as the tension in the air grew Nule was starting to question if he should have brought the dragons down here, however, there was something else bothering him at the moment, why had the military killed so many dragons, and how come they hadn't heard about missing dragons, and how did they get the lights to work? all these questions needed an answer, and the only way Nule could see of finding those answers was to investigate.

"I don't like the looks of this, we need to look into this." Nule said cautiously, he didn't want to upset Demos any more than was necessary.

Nule had not noticed he had accentually let his concentration slip, resulting in the disappearance of the revenant, however, Nule didn't want to call up the past just yet. Slowly Nule approached one of the dead, dragons. the dragon appeared to be a male electric dragon. The dragon was lying on his back, with cuts in his chest leading down to his hips. the skin around the chest sagged in, to the body cavity, revealing that the ribs had been removed.

Nule breathed in sharply, they were killing the dragons and cutting them open, but why, what could they possibly learn from the dragons, besides the anatomy of the dragons. Quickly searching around Nule found, a pair of rubber gloves lying on a table nearby with a selection of tools. Very carefully Nule moved to skin until it opened to reveal the inside of the dead dragon. when the three dragons saw what he was doing, they showed their discomfort with gasps, and angry growls.

"What are you doing?" Demos demanded, it was clear he was growing more and more impatient with the humans with every passing second.

"The military has been, cutting open these dragons, it's obvious, they wanted something from the bodies, Its' just become our job to find out what that is, and the only way I can do that is to have a look at what's missing, now would one of you please help with that, because to be honest I don't know what's missing." Darius explained, as he looked back inside the dragons body.

Darius could feel one of the dragons moving forward, and when he looked up he saw Spyro standing above him, with a slight nod of his head Spyro, looked inside of the body as well. Most of the organs were still there, however most of them had been dumped back inside without care.

"You're going to have to...remove the...organs from the body, so I can see whats missing. without any inhibitions Nule reached in and slowly began to remove the organs. while Nule had graduated the militaries version of school, he had still failed biology so he could not identify, except for the heart, and the lungs.

when at last Nule had laid the last of the organs on the sheet beneath him, he turned to Spyro. Spyro took a quick look over the organs and frowned.

"There's something missing here." Spyro said confusion clearly on his face.

"The gem sac." Spyro said bluntly.

"The gem sac?" Nule asked?

"Dragons have the ability to absorb gems, each type of gem has a different type of energy and when broken down the energy is used, red for healing, green for power, and so on. The gem sac, also allows dragons to turn green gems into our elemental attack." Spyro explained.

"What?" Nule asked in both shock and anger, it suddenly became clear to him, everything was now starting to fall into place.

**00000**

**Yes I left you on a huge cliffhanger, and yes I'm sure most of you will figure it out, but I just want to say, no telling the big secret I want to hear peoples thoughts on what they think it is. For those of you who know, you know exactly what I'm talking about. anyways until next time.**

**On a lighter note, it has come to my attention that my earlier chapters are filled with a lot of grammar mistakes. THANKS A LOT FOR NOT TELLING ME ! no seriously I'm not mad, but I am kind of ticked off that I end up chatting with a random person and he ends up giving me grammar advice that my own fans wouldn't. anyways for the next few days I will be working on fixing my major grammar mistakes, so no writing until they are all fixed or at least mostly fixed.**


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